Bill Carter Planes, David Stanley Tool Auction

I visited the David Stanley tool auction today and Bill Carter was in residence as usual.

He had on display (and of course for sale!) a wide range of his trademark miniature mitre planes. They all have extremely tight mouths and make great user planes as well as being very collectable.

At the other end of the scale Bill has also made some massive jointer planes. This one I'm holding here is 36" long and filled with some of the most beautiful rosewood I have seen. This was made a few years ago and one of 6 planes which are up for sale in the David Stanley international auction which is being held tomorrow.
It is being offered with a guide price of £4 - £6,000 if you have the money and the room!

The preview day is a good one to attend as there are about 25 trade stands with plenty of nice antique tools. these tools tend to be a bit more reasonably priced than the auction and of course don't have the additional 18% auction premium to pay.

Here is a very nice dealer with an even nicer old Japanese slick. He came all the way from Holland and had some very interesting tools on his stand. After buying a few tools at other stands I was drawn back to this one and purchased the slick along with two other old but well looked after Japanese chisels.
With the small scale of work I tend to prefer, I don't know what I'm going to use it for but it had such a lovely feel and beautiful patina I couldn't resist!

The picture above shows a fine selection of Spiers planes which will be auctioned tomorrow. The picture below shows a table full of Norris planes, nearly 50 in all. There are some fine and rare models there, my favourite was probably a small size Norris A16 with a 1 3/4" wide blade. If anyone wants to bid at the auction they are taking on line bidding from the start at 9.30 am.
For me, I think I've spent enough today already!!