One of the planes in my collection is a user made No.5 size plane that someone has gone to a lot of effort to make.
The sides of the plane are welded to the sole via a number of short welds along each side. The sole fits between the sides so there is the obvious join line as seen in the photo.
The handle consists of a sandwich of a flat steel centre section between 2 pieces of wood. The steel section is welded to the sole and the three pieces are held together by what seem to be brass rivets.
The front knob is fastened by a bolt going through it and into a internally threaded tube welded to the sole.
Both the handle and the knob are very solid.
The lever cap is a brass casting with the mould being made from a Falcon Pope plane.
The blade is unmarked and at 3mm is thicker than my typical Stanley blade which is just over 2mm.
The frog is probably the crudest part of the whole plane. While it has 2 screws supposedly holding it in place – it is actually welded into position. The adjustment screw works well but there is no lateral adjustment.
In summary, the effort that went into making this plane must have been for the challenge because the hours of labour would easily outweigh the cost of a plane of the same size. At the time it was likely made – a 2nd hand Australian made Falcon-Pope or Carter plane would have cost very little. It cost me $16 on eBay in 2007 so from my point of view it was a bargain.