Tyzack Router Plane question

[Eric Brown]

I have a Tyzack router plane, similar to Prestons 1399 model. It was in rough condition so I decided to clean it up and refinish. However, after I got through what was left of the red paint I find that it is made of a reddish bronze. I'm thinking some possibilities are either they were initially made of bronze and then later made of cast iron. Or a cast iron one was dropped and a patternmaker made a bronze copy. But if it was a copy, why would they stamp a number "2" into the body by the cutter? All the rest of the hardware looks to be original Tyzack. If anybody has one of these can you please check with a magnet and see if they are bronze or iron?

508751

508752

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Next to a Walke-Moore bronze router for color comparison.

508753

The Tyzack company is still in existence after 90 plus years, so I sent them an email. If they respond I will post.

[Jim Koepke]

This may add to the confusion > https://www.findmytool.co.uk/tyzack-router-1-review.php

jtk

[Eric Brown]

Thanks Jim. This helped a lot. I did a bunch of searching but didn't find the one you did. So now the questions are: Were they made out of two different materials or did the nickel-plating fool people into thinking they were iron?

Looking at mine, it is not a regular brass. It's way too red. At a certain angle it looks more like copper but another angle it is yellower. For some reason naval bronze comes to mind. Not sure.

Still, I appreciate you finding this.

[Eric Brown]

Here is a picture of it stripped, cleaned and polished. Truly bronze.

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I decided to put it back to original by nickel plating and painting. Here is the finished router.

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[steven c newman]

Looks good! Test drive?

[Tom Bender]

That's a great looking plane and a nice rehab.

Guessing that the screw holes are for attaching a sole, what material would that be?

[Eric Brown]

Well a sole could be almost any wood. For my Walke-Moore I made one out of delrin. Slides real nice. It also raises the router up about 1/2" which makes using the narrow Lee Valley cutters easier.