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What's a Pollak Imprint and Rating?
Much of the historical information on this site comes from "A Guide to The Makers of American Wooden Planes" 4th Edition by Emil and Martyl Pollak.
This is the bible for American Wooden Plane collecting. The book contains all known American imprints (makers marks) and also, when possible, identifies the rarity of the imprint.
It also contains any known history of a specific craftsman or company that manufactured planes. I have tried to include some of these in the plane details for historical purposes. All credit for this information goes to the Pollaks and this great guide.
As mentioned, the Pollak book contains ratings for wooden planes. These ratings include the rarity of the plane based on the quantity of known examples.
The book uses a system of stars to indicate the relative rarity .
The Star system is as follows
***** ----> Unique or almost unique which denotes fewer than 10 known examples
**** -----> Extremely rare which denotes between 10 and 50 examples
*** ------> Very Rare which denotes between 50 and 100 known examples
** -------> Rare which denotes between 100 and 250 known examples.
* --------> Uncommon which denotes betweenh 250 and 500 known examples
FF -----> Found Frequently which denotes over 500 known examples
UR -----> Unrated which denotes imprints and makers that there, presently, is insufficient information to rate.
The molding plane detail on this site will contain the imprint (as there can be many) as well as the rating. It should be noted that there are English planes as well as others that may not be in the Pollak book
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