Item description for 19th Century Tool Possibly Civil War Gosport Naval Shipyard Norfolk Wood Plane

The shipyard known today as Norfolk Naval is over 250 years old dating to before the American Revolution. During the Civil War it fell into Confederate hands and that is where the southern Ironclads were built and witness to the famed Monitor-Merrimac battle. Every schoolchild in Norfolk in the 60's went on a "Harbor Tour" field trip and of course we peered intently over the sides of the tour boat looking for the first vague shape of something on the bottom of the water so as to declare we had "found the Merrimac". In fact some of the first victim of that warship, the USS Cumberland, still lies under the mud where it sank.

The provenance on this item is a local military and auction house who often serve as agent for articles de-accessioned by local bases or museums. Three or four of these wood planes turned up a couple of years ago from storage at the shipyard. I don't think I am allowed to promote competitors but bidders can ask for that information

Antique wood block plane marked as made by the Ohio Tool Company and the former property of one E. W. Smith (also possible that is a company name) whose name is on both ends, and it is numbered 72 and under that 3 whatever those numbers indicate. About 9 7/16" long. No blade. Looks so nice I was thinking it had to be refinished but maybe not, might just have been wiped down with English Oil or something. Shows signs of use but no bad scratches. This tool in this condition should be worth the starting bid on its' own merit as a collector's item. The Gosport origin is certain. I can't promise which exact years it was used. This style of tool was made and used for a number of decades. Chances that it is of Civil War age are are slim (my gut feeling is 1870's-1880's based on levels of activity at the yard and need for this kind of tool) but it still might be, and if it is, was almost certainly used on the Ironclads that were the focus of activity there at the time. (*note* I wasn't expecting it to be marked so I did not at first look at or take any photos of the ends where those markings are. If not added already I will do some photos of those asap.)