Amongst by collection of infill planes is a fine 15 1/2 in. Thomas Norris Panel Plane.
About the Norris Plane Company
Pulling together information from several sources, there were 2 generations of ‘Thomas Norris’ involved in planemaking.
Thomas Norris senior was born in 1836 and in an 1861 census was listed as Joiners Tool Maker. In 1871 he referred to himself as a Tool Maker and in 1881 as a Plane Tool Maker. Thomas Norris junior was born in 1861 and was also listed as a Plane Tool Maker in 1881.
Continuing the census information – 1891 had Thomas senior listed as Master Toolmaker and junior as Toolmaker. Moving on another 10 years to 1901, both were listed as Tool (Iron Plane) Manufacturers.
Thomas Norris senior died in 1906 and his son continued the business.
Norris planes were typically made from high-quality materials, including gunmetal, steel, and rosewood. These materials contributed to the planes’ durability and precision. A patented adjustment mechanism was introduced around 1913 (but my Panel Plane doesn’t have this).
During the first world war, they had been compelled to downgrade the product by substituting a casting for dovetailed frames in order to increase production and lower the cost to help meet the urgent needs of a nation at war.
The period from the early 1900’s into the 1920’s seem to be the best period for the company with their catalogues having the biggest range during that time. But by the 1930’s sales for the types of planes they made were declining. Thomas Norris junior died in 1936, with his widow carrying on the business in a limited capacity until selling it in 1941. War period and post war planes were of a lower quality and the company had disappeared by 1956.
Norris “1” Steel Dovetailed Panel Plane
This is my plane. Steel dovetailed body with rosewood infill and gunmetal lever cap. It has an original Norris 2 2/2 in wide blade and is in excellent condition.
These were produced in a range of sizes from 11 1/2 in. to 17 1/2 in. for Panel Planes and from 20 1/2in. to 27 1/2 in. for Jointing Planes. Apart from the length differences and elongation of the bun on the larger planes – these were all very similar in appearance.
Sources of information were:
- Chat GPT (this new world of AI opens up new sources of information, but unfortunately you don’t know the root source)
- Hans Brunner, Infill Planes: A Collectors Guide to Identification and Value,2016 . crowpublishing.com. (Kindle Edition).
- Kenneth D. Roberts, Scottish and English Metal Planes, 1991,Ken Roberts Publishing Company
- Norris Planes website
- Handplane Central website