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Used market price for a Knight Tool Works plane?

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Used market price for a Knight Tool Works plane?

#1

Used market price for a Knight Tool Works plane?

StevenAB

I'm starting to clean out some planes that I rarely use or I have more than one of. The first one I'm getting rid of is a Knight Tool Works adjustable mouth smoother. It's a shame because it worked beautifully, it just never felt comfortable in my hands though. It has a Quarter sawn oak body with an ipe (I think) sole. I've looked around the net to see if I can find any others for sale, but can't find any. Does anyone have an idea what it may be worth on the used market?

Re: Used market price for a Knight Tool Works plane?

#2

Re: Used market price for a Knight Tool Works plan

Mark Nowicki

Since, as you already found out, there is no used market for Knight Tool Works plane,

its value is zero. If you feel that is not so, slap a price on it, put it in the classifieds and see if it sticks.

If it was my plane and taking up space , I would throw it out.

Re: Used market price for a Knight Tool Works plane?

#3

Re: Used market price for a Knight Tool Works plan

Wiley Horne

Steve made real good irons—cryo’ed O1 IIRC.

Wiley

Re: Used market price for a Knight Tool Works plane?

#4

Re: Used market price for a Knight Tool Works plan

CJ in MPLS

I think you are correct on the irons. Mostly I remember polyurethane glue and Steve's irredeemably blackened hands which appeared frequently in his posts. I have no idea what Steve looked like, but I remember his hands.

Re: Used market price for a Knight Tool Works plane?

#5

Auction search result

Jim Matthews

#47 Purple heart smoother made in 2003 sold for $54 USD back in October.

Re: Used market price for a Knight Tool Works plane?

#6

it seems unfair...

David Weaver

..but most small brands of tools lose value (same thing happens with guitars) when there is no current retailed version to generate interest and provide a price point to compare to.

Re: Used market price for a Knight Tool Works plane?

#7

Limited production and resultant demand

Jim Matthews

The same aftermarket pressures deflated prices in vintage British cars.

There's demand for old Triumph two seaters project cars because people remember them.

A salvageable Jensen interceptor will rust away for ages.

Most of us that wanted a Knight plane bought one when they came out.

I find this perverse, when something well made and rare is essentially worthless while something mass produced and mediocre retains a cult following (like Stanley Bedrock).

Re: Used market price for a Knight Tool Works plane?

#8

I have to disagree

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

well made and rare is essentially worthless while something mass produced and mediocre retains a cult following (like Stanley Bedrock).


As I recall the knight planes were just a Krenov style plane easily made by any woodworker than wanted to make one. I made several and they all sit unused on the shelf. I don' t have the time or patience to fiddle with them. Indeed they are useless to my woodworking.

Please explain what is mediocre about a Stanley plane? All the planing I do to make the substantial amount of stuff I make is done with Stanley planes. A Stanley plane provides all the function one needs to make stuff. I don't find them lacking in any way.

I bought a Norris plane and found it did not do anything my Stanley planes didn't do and sold it. Ten times the price of a good #4 and nothing to show for the price difference.

Re: Used market price for a Knight Tool Works plane?

#9

Re: Limited production and resultant demand

David Weaver

There's some staleness to a bedrock, but it's probably a technically superior plane.

(except for the quality of the heat treatment in the irons - the knight irons are among the best I've ever seen in terms of O1 - easily. Steve may have missed his calling a little bit by not making those in stanley/LN/etc replacements.)

That said, the fascination with bedrock is another cognitive or is cognitively absent, or whatever the right way to say it would be.

They are a huge minority vs. the bailey planes. Therefore, it must be because they were a secret higher level plane that nobody knew about. So, we should collect and use them because they're better than bailey planes.

Except....they aren't. I don't know what this would be called - it's the same thing that draws people to boutique house bands that aren't any better than some mainstream artists. The desire to be in on a secret or something.

I bought two planes from steve early on. they were well executed and reflected what everyone was interested in at the time, and he didn't charge enough (in my opinion) to incent himself to stay in the business of making them. His planes are the dearmond of the plane world.

(yes on the cars, though - Jensen needs a few celebrities to talk about how great they are. I wonder how much the early ferraris would be worth if they'd only stayed in business for a couple of years....$48.4MM for one 250 GTO? Where are the cars they raced against?).

Re: Used market price for a Knight Tool Works plane?

#10

Re: Used market price for a Knight Tool Works plan

StevenAB

Well I got $50 Cdn. for it, which is about $39 U.S.

Strange coincidence, I ended up selling it to the fellow who bought a set of chisels from me earlier this fall.

Re: Used market price for a Knight Tool Works plane?

#11

Methinks thou doth protest too much...

Jim Matthews

My suggestion is that collector's markets are not driven by rarity.

Without broad recognition, there is no secondary market.

Stanley planes were produced in numbers that rival the Toyota Camry.

L-N resale values, QED

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