Identifying hand plane made in India

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I have in my possession three hand planes, all from the same manufacturer. The man who purchased is no longer able to indicate from where they came. I have planes numbered 4, 6, and 7. The label on the No. 6 says

ITEM NO. 37016
SMOOTHING PLANE
SIZE : 18"/450mm
MADE IN INDIA

The No. 7 says

ITEM NO. 37018
SMOOTHING PLANE
SIZE : 22"/550mm
MADE IN INDIA

This is the box that contains the No. 6

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The planes are sealed in plastic and have a heavy coating of grease of some kind.

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This is what it looks like when unpacked. The Lever cap is a screw that you turn to loosen or tighten it.

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I unpackaged the No. 7.

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This is how it looks without the Lever Cap.

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The plane blade indicates the preferred angle.

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I have not done much to test this plane other than to feel the blade, which is mostly certainly not sharp. I have not even removed the chip breaker to look at the back of the blade. I expect that it will take a lot of work to make this usable, but, I was hoping that someone could comment on the plane. I have no idea what it is. I am hoping that I can make these usable.

[Frederick Skelly]

I've seen similar planes made in China. They always strike me as just knock-offs. The lengths you mention seem to correlate to the appropriate Stanley/Bailey's, but neither of those lengths are traditional "smoothers".

Have you checked the sole for flatness? Maybe you can tune these more quickly than you think and put them to work. That would be cool.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Good point, I need to check for flatness. I sure hope they have flat bottoms. It will be enough work flattening the back of the blades I expect. I hope to find time to tune these up this work, but I am swamped at work and I spent 6 hours sorting stuff for the family whose father / husband had purchased these before he died :(

[Hilton Ralphs]

Good chance it's an Award plane. We have them here in South Africa but they're not in the same league as Veritas or Lie-Nielsen.

[Robert Engel]

Any tool that doesn't have a name, well........what's that all about?

Traditional WW'er carries a line of shoulder planes made in India named "Rider".

Doesn't "automatically" mean they are junk just depends on how much oversight re: casing and machining.

The WoodRiver planes are made in China and they are good planes.

[george wilson]

Hilton: Do you mean "Anant"?

[Maurice Ungaro]

Some of the Indian made tools are actually quite good. Those look nicely finished, but may require some fettling, as would any non-premium level tool. What's the worst that could happen?

[Hilton Ralphs]

Hilton: Do you mean "Anant"?

George, I'm pretty sure it's 'Award'. I have a #4 and a 220 type Block Plane. Not the best but it was a gift. I'll check again when I pop into the local woodwork hardware shop.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

The photographs that I have seen of an Award or an Anant plane has always had the name on the Lever Cap.

Most lever caps on a bench plane do not use a screw to tighten and loosen it. I have seen this on some planes, but never on a 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8. I think I have one of my scrub plane and I may have seen this on a block plane or bevel up plane.

It is very odd that there is no name anywhere on the plane, even after they took the time to indicate the preferred sharpening angle on the blade.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

This looks very similar to a Soba hand plane. Anyone ever used a Soba? Looks like they use a screw and no name on the lever plate.

[Maurice Ungaro]

Most lever caps on a bench plane do not use a screw to tighten and loosen it. I have seen this on some planes, but never on a 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8. I think I have one of my scrub plane and I may have seen this on a block plane or bevel up plane.
Andrew, it's common on all Lee Valley bench planes. Lie-Nielsen has this on all of their low angle planes, which yes, are bevel up planes, but are still bench planes none the less. You also see this type of lever cap on infill planes, etc.

Mentioning Soba, which I had not heard of before - except for the noodles...., I found this blog: http://indiandiy.blogspot.com/2013/11/tool-review-exceptional-made-in-india.html
The fellow speaks very highly of them.

[Hilton Ralphs]

George this is what I have. Mine is re-branded as 'Award' but it seems like it could be 'Soba' or 'Anant' or whatever the local agency decides is their 'brand'.

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[Maurice Ungaro]

Hilton, yours could indeed be a "major award": http://youtu.be/Yzht2_41caU

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Hilton, yours could indeed be a "major award": http://youtu.be/Yzht2_41caU

It must be Italian ... Fragile.... :-)

[Andrew Pitonyak]

George this is what I have. Mine is re-branded as 'Award' but it seems like it could be 'Soba' or 'Anant' or whatever the local agency decides is their 'brand'.

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That makes a lot of sense.... and that plane looks exactly like what I have. The part numbers are even similar in form.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Andrew, it's common on all Lee Valley bench planes. Lie-Nielsen has this on all of their low angle planes, which yes, are bevel up planes, but are still bench planes none the less. You also see this type of lever cap on infill planes, etc.

Mentioning Soba, which I had not heard of before - except for the noodles...., I found this blog: http://indiandiy.blogspot.com/2013/11/tool-review-exceptional-made-in-india.html
The fellow speaks very highly of them.

I appreciate the link.... That looks right. I hope that this turns out to be equally as good. I will, of course, provide updates as I start to tune this up.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Time is tight, but, I did some work on the No 7 plane. First, I pulled the frog. Things seemed to match well enough. I did not take a picture of just the screws, so, I cut them from another shot. You can probably see that the washers kind of beat up and bent.

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This is the blade after I cleaned it. Note the odd imperfection on the blade. This is the blade top. The mill marks look the same on the front and the back. I ignored the imperfection on the blade, but remember, this is a new plane.

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It looks like the blade was sharpened by hand against with a very uneven camber.


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And this is the bottom front of the plane. It looks like the plane might have been dropped (or similar). That imperfection sticks up on the bottom by a large amount. I used my dremel to knock that off.

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[Andrew Pitonyak]

First, I made things square. Off hand, I don't remember if I started with my dry slow grinder to square the edge or if I went directly to the Tormek, but, I squared the edge before I tried to flatten the back since it was so far out.

Flattening the back of the blade was a lot of work. I did the initial work using sand paper. I stated with 220 grit, but when I realized how bad this really was, I switched to a courser sand paper (80 or 100 I think it was). I worked this blade over numerous days and I spent hours trying to get it down. I would have saved lots of time if I had just started with the course sand paper, but it had not occurred to me how bad it would be.

This picture is after using some course sand paper on it. Notice that the upper right corner is not touched at all, even with course paper.

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I did lots of work on this blade, and it was getting difficult to hold, so, I grabbed one of the magnets with a switch on it to hold the blade
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When I added the magnet, I chose to do this dry. The magnet collected the metal as it came off the blade. You can see that there is very little left behind on the sand paper.

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I finally gave up on trying to flatten the back. That upper right corner, after many hours of work, was still lower than the rest. I decided that I would just try the blade as is, and, if the blade is an issue, I might just replace the blade with a PMV11 blade from Lee Valley or a Hock blade (or, if something else shows up, I might use that). Since I had trouble with the back, I used the ruler trick (thank you David Charlesworth).

I did some test cuts with this No. 7, but I have not spent much time with the blade. I had to leave town for a few weeks, so, that is something else that I need to come back to. I did use it to joint a few boards before joining them to make a wider board. The adjustments are not nearly as nice as my Lie Nielsen planes, and my older Stanleys probably adjust easier as well, but, I was able to make it work.

[steven c newman]

You can always drop that troublesome iron off over at my shop....might take an afternoon for me to fix it.

Just rehabbed a StanleyNo.7c a while back....didn't take all the long.

[Frederick Skelly]

Thanks for the interesting update Andrew!
Fred

[Andrew Pitonyak]

You can always drop that troublesome iron off over at my shop....might take an afternoon for me to fix it.

Just rehabbed a StanleyNo.7c a while back....didn't take all the long.

Ya know, I might take you up on that. Of course, I would want to see how you work your magic :-)

I am almost afraid to look at the other two planes that are still in sealed plastic. I have a few other items that are also of a high priority. First, I am evaluating something for Wixley to see how well it installed on my junk Drill Press. And a very close friend died and I have a bunch of his stuff that I need to sell for his parents (wish I knew more about vacuum tubes and watches; some are worth a bunch).

[steven c newman]

You are welcome to come on over, just let me know..

[Dave Lehnert]

I don't have my plane in front of me but looks like one I purchased from Hartville Hardware a few years back.
I see you are from Columbus, Ohio. so possible it came from Hartville Hardware in Heartville Ohio.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I don't have my plane in front of me but looks like one I purchased from Hartville Hardware a few years back.
I see you are from Columbus, Ohio. so possible it came from Hartville Hardware in Heartville Ohio.


Very astute, yes, you are very likely correct. I had not thought of that. And that sounds like the correct time frame (a few years back).

[Dave Lehnert]

Very astute, yes, you are very likely correct. I had not thought of that. And that sounds like the correct time frame (a few years back).


I remember at the time they were considered a good hand plane at a good price.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

4 1/2 years later, an update...

The #7 blade was very difficult the flatten the back, but the plane works very well after I finished with it. The biggest issue was flattening the back.

Yesterday, I pulled the #6 and the #5. The #6 blade had a hollow on the back so it took a while to flatten the back to get even a 1/4" or maybe closer to 3/16" smooth area back from the blade. The #5 went much faster (about 1/4 the time as the #6) and is probably about 3/8" shiny from the cutting edge.

I will sharpen the blades today (probably) and see how they cut. I hope they work as well as the #7 does.

[steven c newman]

Took me about an afteroon...to rehab an A4 Anant...
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Spent $5, and walked home with it....
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Then...traded it off, for a Millers Falls No. 9..Type 4