Comments on: Buying good tools cheap – About Smoothers

By: Paul Sellers

Paul Sellers — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 23:33:00 +0000

Thanks for this, Rich. That was a good price and it will enable you to pick up others and cannibalise the one spare that you have to restore another. I keep three or four #4s for different tasks. I have one where I opened the throat with a flat file , which I use as a scrub plane. This has a cambered iron. I have another really finely tuned for ultra-fine work and I have another for heavy work. These I probably paid $30 for. I pick them to task and switch from one to the other. Even if I paid $30-40 a piece I wood still be ahead. I know when I post the prices go up but if people hang around a little the prices go back down. And of course there is always the secondhand market of garage sales and flea markets. secondhand dealers and such. I think that some dealers have really fair prices.

By: Rich Harkrader

Rich Harkrader — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 21:16:00 +0000

I’ve noticed that a lot of the old Bailey planes are rather overpriced on the US ebay. I’ve had good luck looking for planes in sets and lots. For instance I paid less than 20 USD for 2 No 4 planes, one with a broken tote and chipped lever cap. The other was perfectly fine and has cleaned up nicely. Also, I’ve noticed that people value the corrugated sole planes and have picked up a couple of those cheaply. They seem to work just as well as the smooth soled models. Just a couple of tips.

Rich;)

By: Paul Sellers

Paul Sellers — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 10:12:00 +0000

I don’t actually understand the reasoning in it. There are likely more of them lying around on shelves here than the UK and perhaps that’s the reason. I wonder if people just don’t or can’t be bothered to sell them.

By: Patrick Anderson

Patrick Anderson — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 23:50:00 +0000

Well said mate.

I missed out on a record 44 today as I didn’t hear my phone tell me there was 4 mins left. It went for 16 quid with 22.70 shipping to the USA…bugger.