Home or factory made?

I purchased an unusual-looking smoothing plane from a tool dealer thinking it had been drastically modified by a previous owner. It was similar in size to a Stanley No. 4 or a Record 04. The plane had had the back handle (called the tote) and the blade holder (the frog) replaced with a single wooden handle. It occurred to me that this may have been the prototype for a new type of plane. However, a wooden frog with a blade that is moved while being adjusted clamped to it would probably suffer rapid wear and would have a limited life, so I thought it was probably another example of a damaged tool being repaired by an owner who couldn’t afford to replace it. The plane, I theorized, might have been dropped, the cast-iron frog snapped, and a wooden replacement crafted, the incorporation of the tote with the frog an inspired innovation.

The first clue that I was mistaken was the machining of the bladeholding surface of the wooden frog. It was very precisely routed, with a much better finish than would be expected from a one-off. Close inspection revealed the symbol X4 cast in the tool’s body. A search for X4 online immediately turned up images of my plane and its unexpected history.

The Marples X4 plane was designed by David Pye and produced in Britain between 1955 and 1965 by the old-established Sheffield firm of William Marples and Sons, Ltd.

It was highly regarded as an innovative design and was granted Registered Design No. 873,964 in 1955. Notably, its cutter end is always supported by the body at the plane’s mouth, so reducing chatter, and the mouth is adjustable so it can be made very small, allowing very fine shavings to be produced. X4s are apparently sought-after tools today and command high prices on Internet auction sites. My example has been thrashed and looks a sorry sight. A previous owner was so concerned that other workers would appropriate his X4 that he has drilled his identification mark on it in no fewer than four places.