I can't make head or tail of this.

[Mike G]

I just saw this on Facebook marketplace.



Has anyone any idea what it is?

 

[AJB Temple]

Stop looking, You have enough tools :lol:

 

[Mike G]

I was looking for table lamps. That's Facebook for you.

 

[AndyT]

It's a special plane to work the edges of fibreboard and put a bevel on them.

It doesn't look quite like the Record 735 or 730 but I think there was another one under the trade name "Jiffy".

Really not much use unless you have a lot of old, soft fibreboard from the 1950s, as they don't work on solid wood.

Edit: here's a better photo

https://www.oldtools.co.uk/products/jif ... mers-plane

 

[Mike G]

Thanks Andy. Your knowledge is extraordinary.

The only thing I ever have to do with fibreboard is order its removal.

 

[Lurker]

Some here may be aware that Paul Sellars has been known to feature hand tools on his website and set off a buying frenzy.
Sixty years ago dear old Barry Bucknell did the same thing, putting hardboard on panelled interior doors was all the rage, hence these planes.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

My ex next door neighbour's house had been Bucknelled. He thought it would be good to remove all the hardboard - of course the mouldings on the doors had been removed (hacked off) and the bannisters boxed in. Unfortunately when he took the hardboard off half the spindles had been cut up to improvise as noggins between the others.

 

[Malc2098]

I used to sell the hardboard from a timber yard in the 60s; 6 x 2, 6'6"x2'6", 6'8"x2'8", 7x3, 8x4, 4x2, 4x3, 6x4 - all Royalboard from Sweden, I believe.

I used to unload a lorry load, 20 tons, every Monday morning by hand. Most of it went out wholesale to DIY and Hardware shops around London and Middlesex.

I was well 'ard in those days.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

What on earth was 6'6" x 2'6" and 6'8" x 2'8" hardboard used for, I wonder. :lol:

 

[Malc2098]

What on earth was 6'6" x 2'6" and 6'8" x 2'8" hardboard used for, I wonder. :lol:

That was down to Barry Bucknell. Those were standard door sizes.

 

[AndyT]

My Dad was responsible for buying some of those door sized boards. I remember helping fit them, with a Pushpin and little copper plated nails.

 

[Malc2098]

My Dad was responsible for buying some of those door sized boards. I remember helping fit them, with a Pushpin and little copper plated nails.

We sold them, too.

 

[Cabinetman]

That looks like a Marples chisel with it.

 

[Mike G]

I'm not exactly sure how we got on to hardboard, when this tool was for fibreboard. Fibreboard was the mid-century precursor of plasterboard: a fibrous base board for plastering over. Hardboard was a compressed board which was actually hard as a rock, shiny one side and with a hessian-like texture on the other. Are we talking at cross purposes, or have we just drifted?

Oh, and on hardboard, many a period property was saved by the fetish for tacking hardboard over everything. I can't begin to imagine how many 1930s semis would have lost all of their doors, mouldings and staircases if it wasn't for hardboard. Obviously lots were wrecked in the process, but many were preserved.

 

[AndyT]

That could be my fault. Having looked up the spec of the Record planes, they could be used on softboard, with disposable razor blade style cutters, but were also supplied with a thicker iron (similar to one on a spokeshave) which was robust enough to slit or bevel hardboard.

I assume the rival Jiffy would also have cut both sorts of board.

I've just been playing with my Record 735. Frankly a craft knife and a No 4 would do a better job.

 

[Lurker]

The 735 was possibly the only record plane with absolutely no merit whatsoever.

 

[Woodbloke]

I used to sell the hardboard from a timber yard in the 60s; 6 x 2, 6'6"x2'6", 6'8"x2'8", 7x3, 8x4, 4x2, 4x3, 6x4 - all Royalboard from Sweden, I believe.

I used to unload a lorry load, 20 tons, every Monday morning by hand. Most of it went out wholesale to DIY and Hardware shops around London and Middlesex.

I was well 'ard in those days.

Hardboard 'ordinaires' is the pits. Oil tempered hardboard on the other hand is totally different stuff and far superior to use - Rob

 

[Phil Pascoe]

What on earth was 6'6" x 2'6" and 6'8" x 2'8" hardboard used for, I wonder. :lol:

That was down to Barry Bucknell. Those were standard door sizes.

Yes, I realised that.