Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Looking for info. on Marsh Planes
Gary from Vancouver, BC
>I came across a 5 1/4 Marsh hand plane and was wondering if anyone has any information on this Bailey type knockoff. Is Marsh a decent make? The plane I saw (was a fellow woodworker's) was in decent shape but need to be tuned up for my liking. He offered to sell it to me, but I just wasn't sure. What do you think?
Re: Looking for info. on Marsh Planes *LINK*
L. Hanson - N. Idaho
>I have an old Marsh company transitional plane bought used by my grandfather sometime in the thirties...
Marsh was one of the dozens of plane companies in existence just after the turn of the century - it's my understanding that the company was bought out by the Stanley company. The factories made Bailey planes after the buyout, IIRC.
They were famous for the "Marsh Mitre Machine" - which became a Stanley miter machine - #100 is an example.
More info on the oldtools list:
Leif
www.norsewoodsmith.com
Oldtools discussion
Re: Looking for info. on Marsh Planes
David Miller from Iowa
>In my experience Marsh planes are fine - they used the Stanley designs after the patents ran out.
Thanks, but still have a question
Gary from Vancouver, BC
>Thanks for the link Lief and for your comments David. Certainly more information than I was able to source.
If I was to buy this plane, what would be a fair price to offer? We hadn't discussed price yet, and not being a "collector" of Stanley type planes ( only have a #4 and #7) I am a little naive on this one.
Re: Thanks, but still have a question
L. Hanson - N. Idaho
>I'm not a great source for values, so take anything I say about worth with a grain of salt - and a 5-1/4 is a bit of an off-size, so it might be worth a bit more or less, esp. to collectors of such things...
Marsh planes are somewhat more scarce in the wild, that might increase their value somewhat. But - IME, the Marsh planes I've seen have sold for around the same as equivalent planes made by other manufacturers such as Ohio, Vaughn & Bushnell, Sargent, etc... They aren't *highly* sought after - a #2 sold recently for something like $220, comparable to the cost for a stanley, and mjdtools.com estimated the value of a #8 sized jointer at between $30 and $60, which seems a little low to me.
As for quality - the Marsh I have seems to be of excellent quality - as good as any Stanley or Sargent plane of similar vintage that I've seen. I would let that be your guide, more so than the collectibility of this particular brand.
Re: Thanks, but still have a question
David Miller from Iowa
>The real question is what it is worth to you? For me, I consider $20 a bargain, $30 about right and $40 pushing it - but then again I already have 4 planes of this size.
A decent, usable plane of a size you don't have should be worth $25 easily.