I haven’t posted for a while because I have been quite busy with non-woodwork related activities. Ever since my workshop build my garden has been something of a mess. The crater that was left behind after I tore down the old shed became a general dumping ground for all the rubbish that didn’t make it into the new one. That has all been cleared now, including a couple of tons of granite boulders that were under a tangle of weeds behind the old shed, which have now been moved to the top of the garden until I can find a use for them. I have also recently cut all my hedges, which produced 8 ton-bags full of cuttings for recycling; fixed my ride on mower so that I can cut my lawns properly; and cleared an overgrown area at the top of the garden, producing two more ton-bags full of green-waste recycling. I have also made a gravelled area to keep our new motor home on, shuttered with old telegraph poles. Continue reading “Maker’s Mark: redux” →

I took the iron out of The Beast this morning, and underneath a layer of rust I found a makers mark and some text. It looks as though the iron was made by Peugeot. I did a bit of digging online, and from the style of the logo, it was probably made sometime between 1858 and 1900. Apparently, the lion and arrow logo was abandoned by Peugeot at the beginning of the 20th century, and although it made a reappearance a decade or two later, it was always depicted within a shield of some kind.

The text below the logo, ‘A GARANTIE’, is fairly self-explanatory, but the text above is largely obscured because decades of iron adjustment, presumably with a hammer, has rolled the metal down over it. It might say ‘PEUGEOT FRERES’, which was a trade name used by Armand Peugeot and his cousin Eugène in the 1860’s, and would fit in with time frame of the logo.

This of course says nothing about the age or provenance of the plane itself, which has no markings on it at all. But I understand that it was quite usual in 19th century Europe for plane irons, rather than plane bodies to be stamped with the makers mark.

I suspect that this will be all that I can find out about this plane, but I’ll post back if I find out anything else.