Old Wood Plane Rabbet?

[Gil Knowles]

Hi
My brother found this old plane the other day at a shop and bought it.
Unfortunatley it is missing the iron and wedge. Is this a rabbet plane? The fence can be adjusted by moving the wedges on the 2 arms.
It has the following stamped on the side, C. Wilton, R. Davey, Hewison, London and a large W. I am not sure if this is the maker or maybe previous owner stamped it with their names.
Any information will be appreciated.
Many thanks
Gil

[Dave Anderson NH]

Technically speaking the plane is refered to as a "moving filletster" or "moving fillester" depending on who's spelling and terminology you prefer. It indeed is designed to cut rabbets or rebates.

[Matt Radtke]

I'm not going to claim to be an expert, but it looks more like a plow to me.

[Jim Koepke]

These can usually accommodate blades from 1/8 inch up to the width of the wedge.

They are a plow plane, but can also cut rabbets.

The blades for these will have a groove on the back that sits on the metal skate. Here is a picture I found on ebay searching > plow plane blade <

142474

They are a usable plane, but something like a Stanley 45 would be less frustrating and more useful.

I bought mine about 40 years ago for $10 at a Cost Plus Imports store just because it looked neat. It was in a big tray with about a dozen others like it.

jim

[Jim Koepke]

Not sure what happened when posting the image, but clicking on the

Attachment 142474

in the previous post should open an image in a new window.

jim

[Dave Anderson NH]

Hi Matt, It indeed could be a plow. The tools are very similar. As Jim said, a plow will normally be fitted to take any one of several irons up to allow for different width cuts. Both plows and filletsters have depth stops and about half of the time a filletster will also have some form of nicker.

[Gil Knowles]

Thanks for the replies.
Jim unfortunately your attachment will not open for me.
Gil

[David Keller NC]

There's a good way to tell the difference between a wooden plow, a wooden moving fillister, and a wooden sash fillister. In particular, a plow will almost always have a steel or iron reinforcing plate that's 90 degrees to the work surface - the sole exception being some so-called "Yankee Plows" that were made in the 18th century and only have the provision for a single-width iron.

A fillister, whether sash or moving, will almost never have a steel reinforcing plate, and if they do, the entire width of the reinforcing plate will be backed up with wood (in contrast to a plow, which will be "relieved" behind the plate to accomodate the different width irons). 19th century moving fillisters and sash fillisters, at least the ones made by big manufacturers will most often have a boxwood sole dovetailed into the main body of the plane as well.