# An EBAY steal if your interested!



## ACP (Jan 24, 2009)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-ANTIQU...774?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item46034d334e



If anyone is looking for a really good steal on Ebay this one looks great. It appears to have all the patina one could ask for in an old plane (actually several old ones combined :blink.



!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Gary Beasley (Jan 21, 2009)

Interesting antique. When I first pulled up the ad I thought it must have dated back to the stone age, it looked like a lump of sandstone in the picture! It's certainly well used and abused.


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## knotscott (Nov 8, 2007)

Zero bids....go figure! 

I've got a rock I can put up for sale for < $400. :laughing:


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## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

*It Might Sell*

It might sell for that much, although I doubt fleabay is the right outlet for it.

F. Nicholson - earliest known "American" planemaker. He died in 1753. He and his son John were planemakers in the Boston area before the U.S was U. He also had a slave named Cesar Chelor who became a famous planemaker. 

So these aren't your garden variety lumps of civil-war era lumber. Condition might kill it as a user, but it is more of a museum piece.

I think for something like that, if he's going to sell it on the net that he really needs to get some better pics. At a minimum the makers mark should be clearer than it is.


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## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

*Buy the book*

Separate post because it's a separate thought. If you're into wooden planes you should consider buying the book "American Wooden Planes" by Emil and Martyl Pollak. It lists every American maker known, the marks they used, biography, years in operation and more. It has a lot of info on wedge shapes, style changes over the decades and much more. It will help you identify an 18th century $$$ collectors edition versus an early 20th century factory made user. 

There is another book for British planes, but it is much smaller and doesn't have nearly as much info.


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## ACP (Jan 24, 2009)

That is interesting Joe. I was being sarcastic, and I wouldn't pay $500 unless I was a true collector, but I didn't know it could be so old. Pre-revolutionary war, that is cool. I wish he did have more pics. You learn something new every day don't you. I'll have to do some research on Nichols.


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## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

I understood the sarcasm - I think we've all seen some stuff listed that just makes you do a double take. There's a "new" drill press on my local CL right now that costs $160 new, and the guy wants $300. And some of the broken, rusted no-name pieces of junk being peddled on the bay as "mint stanley" just make me want to reach through the screen, grab the seller by the throat and smack some sense into him.

As for $500, I wouldn't pay that money either - but my name isn't bucket-o-gold. I don't know what collectors pay for a Nicholson Sr. but planes from his slave, C. Chelor, have sold for close to 3 grand in less than perfect condition - the number one reason I stop and look at every wooden molding plane on every shelf at every flea market/garage sale/auction I go to, no matter how beat up it looks.


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## knotscott (Nov 8, 2007)

Well shoot! ...what's the fun in picking on a guy who's selling a true museum piece?! :laughing: Good to know though....thanks for the info.


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## Chaincarver Steve (Jul 30, 2011)

I sure wouldn't pay that kind of money for it. More power to whomever does.



joesbucketorust said:


> At a minimum the makers mark should be clearer than it is.


If you scroll through all the pictures, there are two rather clear close-ups of the stamped maker's mark.


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## Itchytoe (Dec 17, 2011)

Is this plane historically important, or just a really old plane? Ok, it was made by a guy who lived in a part of North America that would later become the USA. That makes it old and American, but in my book, being old, American, or both doesn't make you valuable. Does this plane have some technological design that makes it important? Maybe a special metallurgy for the components? The first plane to make use of some specific angle, or reinforcement item? If not, what sets this plane apart from an old rock?

I'm not trying to say this thing is worthless. I may simply not know what I'm looking at. If you know why this would be worth more than a rock, please tell me.


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## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

Hard to tell - out here in AZ we're not exactly swimming in 270 year old pre-revolutionary war americana. Maybe it's different for those out East. But just taking a wild guess I'd say - first known commercial planemaker in the colonies.


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