Once again Facebook Marketplace has thrown up a nice surprise.
I saw a wooden plow plane advertised as unknown maker and at a reasonable price. I offered slightly less and it was accepted, so the plane became mine.
Initial inspection showed it to be in excellent condition and all original except for the wedges holding the sliding arms.
Close inspection of the toe revealed what seemed to be a makers mark – partially covered by an owners stamp.
Experimenting with various viewing angles and lighting, I was able to make out ‘W.DEE’.
Going to my standard reference ‘Goodman’s British Planemakers 4th Edition’ I found that the only maker that those letters matched was William Deeley. There was also an image of his stamp which matched what I saw on my plane.
There were 2 William Deeley’s with the first operating before 1788 and was thought to be a journeyman for the more well known George Mutter. I discounted this one as he possibly didn’t sell planes as his own.
The second operated from 1826-1853 in London and from those dates, my plane is anything from 172-199 years old. I would put it toward the older end of that range because the makers mark is probably that used early on in his work.
As another bit of interesting information about William Deeley is that his location from 1826 -1844 of 4 Sutton Street, Soho had previously been used by 3 other groups of planemakers. Pure supposition on my part is that Wiliam Deeley learnt his trade under one or more of them and then took over the business and premises.