Van Camp planes

[Bryan Hartle]

Picked up a No. 8 corrugated plane last weekend. No other marking on the plane except the iron. It is marked Van Camp. I found that this was a Hardware company from Indianapolis. Anyone know who may have manufactured this plane? Do they have any value to collectors or can I go ahead and do a rehab without worry of destroying something of value.

[Dave Matson]

Check the lateral adjuster for clues:

http://www.brasscityrecords.com/toolworks/graphics/plane%20id.html

[Jim Koepke]

Picked up a No. 8 corrugated plane last weekend. No other marking on the plane except the iron. It is marked Van Camp. I found that this was a Hardware company from Indianapolis. Anyone know who may have manufactured this plane? Do they have any value to collectors or can I go ahead and do a rehab without worry of destroying something of value.

Brian, welcome to the Creek. As Dave says, the lateral adjuster can be a big clue.

Pictures always help. Things that will help to identify a plane are close ups of the lateral adjuster and a few other parts.

Many parts can help identify a manufacturer because of the individual ways they were made.

There are some pictures here:

http://my.voyager.net/~mfhaston/VanCampTools.html

but they are not clear enough to show the detail needed to identify.

Since rebranded articles were usually bought through a bidding process, the suppliers to different retailers changed from time to time. Some years they could have been made by Sargent and other years they could have been made by Stanley.

Not sure about the value of such things, but usually the value is determined by condition, collector desire and how much money the people who want the item have to spend to get what they want.

jim