Auction Find

Went to an auction last week and picked up this plane just because it looked interesting. It was patented in 1933 and seems to have been retailed by Shelton Tools. Overall about 9" long. The patent called it a carpenters plane. All the adjustments are built into the lever cap. There is no real frog, just two points of contact. I did clean it up a bit and sharpened the blade yesterday. It works, but seems best suited for rough work.

Another $10 plane to add to the collection. Anyone know any more?

Don't know anything Dan. But I was wondering how well it performs? Looks to be about the size of a #4. Have you tried using it to smooth a board yet?
Fred

Looks like an old scrub plane that I have.

Also looks similar to the Sargent Auto Set lineup. (Look up a Sargent 718 for pictures)

Patented by one Cornelius MacAller: http://www.datamp.org/patents/displayPatent.php?id=5553 . Produced, I believe, by Shelton. I've got one; never used it. It sits on the shelf, proudly demonstrating that people were still coming up with ideas for plane adjustment in 1932.

I've seen two - owned them both, kept the better of them, passed the other one on - and pictures of others. The patent doesn't describe the lateral adjustment, but every example I've seen has had the adjustment.

The patent describes it as a carpenter's plane; that would be about right. No adjustment to the mouth, the chipbreaker is built into the "lever" cap. Still, points for creativity.

One of my neighbors has one and had me look at it. It was his fathers who used to live around where the Shelton planes were made.

After sharpening and cleaning it up, we still couldn't get it to work very well for anything but rough work.

jtk

I did manage to get it working, but I would never consider it a smoother. No real chip breaker to speak of, minimal frog support to the blade, lateral by tapping the blade. Almost screeching sound when using, and that was just beveling the edges of some oak. I agree with Bill, this one will stay as a sign of creativity.

I did find the patent by CJ Aller from 1933.

I own one ad I agree it's not really up to smoothing standards. I tend to treat mine as a small roughing plane when I need to knock down a particularly annoying hump or something. Mostly because its in one piece and I have relatively few #4s.