Spiers plane

[Mathias Steen]

Hi,

First post, been reading for some time. I received a Spiers plane today that looks different from most Spiers I manage to find on internet and would like your help to figure out what it is. Some information:

-Cap lever is magnetic and stuck
-plane iron is replaced by a Peugeot fères
-cap screw threads are not square
-Stamped on chip breaker
"STEWART SPIERS"
"CAST STEEL"
"AYR SCOTLAND"
-brass rivet with threads on the chip breaker
-written on cap lever:
"SPIERS" (arc)
"plane-o-ayr" (straight)
"AYR" (arc)
-frog is metal, rivet each side at the top, flat with u-shaped cutout for chip breaker screw
-"63" at the left side of the heel next to the tote

[Mathias Steen]

Some more photos

[David Weaver]

I think Spier's made a glom of them as an attempt to make a lower cost plane and called them "plane o Ayr". Google should be able to help you find more pictures of them. They come up for sale from time to time, and sell a little lower than a full blown infill. I've never seen an attestation of how well they work.

[Mathias Steen]

Some numbers:
sole 213*60.5mm
cap lever screw: head diameter 25mm (height 6mm), thread diameter 12.5mm (length 42mm)
chip breaker 104.5*50.5*3mm, "63mm" stamped on the back, hole for riveted brass nut is square 12*12mm, screw diameter is 8mm

[Mathias Steen]

Any idea when it was made?

[David Weaver]

Any idea when it was made?

No. I only know what it is because I almost bought one last year, though I recall the one I was looking at having a knob.

I have seen later steel planes, but it might take a collector to tell you much about them (any of them) as most of us are used to seeing the often copied spiers panel plane.

[David Weaver]

I found this, it shows the knobbed type I remember. Yours looks a little different but the "plane o ayr" on the lever cap is pretty hard to deny.

http://www.stagtools.co.uk/SteelPlanes/Stewart_Spiers.htm

I see the sole on yours is dovetailed also. I don't know if spiers made casted planes later, but every one I've seen in person is dovetailed. that doesn't say much, though, i'm not an infill collector.

(I should've read the link I posted, it suggests the later ones were made of cast malleable iron).

[Mathias Steen]

How can you see it is dovetailed?

[David Weaver]

See the circles in this picture. Guessing a little bit, but lines of that orientation aren't usually just scratches.

296457

[Mathias Steen]

I didn't notice anything,I'm impressed. Now that you pointed it out it is very visible with a magnifying glass.

[Bill Moser]

Mathias -
I have Nigel Lampert's book on Spiers. According the Lampert, the "relief" lever cap (which would have been nickel plated) indicates a later model, probably WWI or early twenties. All of the pictures in the book (as well as the illustration for the patent application) show a turned knob, rather than the infill style "bun" on your plane. Is it possible that the bun is a user replacement?

[Mathias Steen]

Everything is possible... from pictures I've seen it looks like the wooden front part is turned 180° though I've no idea how anyone could have done that. Normally the vertical part is in the front and the angled into the opening where the shavings come. The iron is replaced so the knob might be replaced too.

Any chance you could scan those pages in your book?

[David Weaver]

The sides are a bit different (at the front) than the style that has a knob, too. The metal sides terminate a bit early on the one with a front knob, but they go all the way to the front on that one.

[Bill Moser]

Well, I scanned some of the catalogs and the patent app into pdfs, but I can't seem to upload these as attachments -- the uploads keep failing. Perhaps they're too big @ 2-3 MB each. If you PM me w/your email address I'll send them to you directly.

[Mathias Steen]

Thank you for scanning the pages. PM on the way

[Dave Anderson NH]

For reference Bill files larger than about 150kb are automatically rejected by the software.

[Bill Moser]

Thanks Dave, I'll have to remember that in the future!

[Mathias Steen]

It turns out the front wooden part is cracked in two and someone glued the loose part back in the wrong direction. Perhaps it has been repaired another time as there are three nails driven in on the throat side of the wood.