Gunmetal Coffin Smoother Plane By C.W. Ridgeway

A high quality gunmetal coffin sided smoothing plane by C.W. Ridgeway of London. The plane has been fitted with an ebony infill and wedge, and has a steel sole sweated on to the gunmetal casting. It has been stamped “C W Ridgeway, Maker, London” on the gunmetal bridge.

The plane measures 7-1/4″ in length and has a 2-1/4″ wide cutting iron by Buck & Ryan. The mouth is tight and perfectly square and there are no assembly numbers present.

Though Mr. Ridgeway is definitely a maker of some considerable talent, unfortunately almost nothing is known of him, which is a bit of a shame. To my knowledge not even a date has been established as to his working life, nor an address other than “London”, however a few of his cast gunmetal smoothing planes have shown up for sale over the years, either marked C.W. Ridgeway or just C. Ridgeway.

An extremely nice little infill plane from a very rare maker.

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