Bailey Pre Type 1 Vertical Post Plane.

Post date: 11-Feb-2018 03:45:28

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No 8 Pre Type 1 Bailey Vertical Post Plane. 

Leonard Bailey (1855-1905) was an inventor and manufacturer. Working as a cabinet maker approximately 1839-1849, he began messing around improving the wooden planes he worked with. Although iron planes have known recordings as far back as 400AD in Roman days, their blades were more in a position for scraping. Much later, around 1827, a man called Hazard Knowles ( a carriage maker ) came out with an iron plane but with a wooden locking wedge and a quarter of a century later in 1854, a Birdsville Holly obtained a patent on a jointer plane, which was twenty and a half inch long iron plane but it had a fixed back to house the blade. It also had a corrugated bottom with no frog.

Then along came Thomas Worrall of Boston in 1855, a maker of wooden planes but in a transitional form which he called a “Multiform Plane”. It had a wooden bottom and iron top section ( to house the blade ). His TRANSITIONAL PLANES are the most impressive type I have ever come across. 

Now this is where Bailey made his first mistake. His mind set stayed with the successful transition plane, but he wanted an all iron plane. Bailey applied for a patent, as we know now as the “Split Frame Plane” (Two separate castings ). In 1858 he introduced his Split Frame Planes - “Problem Plane” ( Metal on metal ) which again gave him grief over the control of movement of steel, the “rocking blade” and the main thing, tension. Bailey experimented with coil springs and spring steel, double springs, thumb screws and under front knobs.

There were too many moving parts. In 1859 he introduced the new version of these planes but stuck with spring coils but did add a pivoting frog and a solid cast lever cap. In the meantime, in 1861 Bailey moved to new premises in Boston and needed to make money. He decided to drop the production of the split frame. It was to costly to manufacture because it had to have numbered parts, sophisticated castings and filings.       

Hence the birth of what I call- Pre Type 1 Vertical Post Plane. No more split frame, but a one cast body but still staying with the pivoting frog ( a mistake because there was no gain ). The plane has limited adjustments, and on the face of it, the pivoting frog only gave the blade angle adjustment and no up and down movement. The pre - Type 1 Vertical Post plane was made from numbers 1 - 3, though mainly 3 - 8. Maybe only six Number Ones were made. Bailey Pre Type 1 was definitely the front runner of all the Bailey planes.

Thanks to Gerry Gradisen for this interesting and informative article.

Gerry's extensive ongoing research into Stanley Spokeshaves and Planes  cannot be adequately covered in these brief articles. He is more than happy to talk to interested parties on the subject. If you wish to contact Gerry please email our secretary at samualwayneh@gmail.com who will be happy to forward your details on.