I have an older plane and would like to know the manufacturer. I tried
google but am not getting good results.

The base is 2 1/2" x ~9 3/4 rounded in the front and an ogee in the
back. The black handle and knob are plastic or maybe bakelite. Around
the knob is cast "USA No 4", nothing else that I can see.

It looks very similar to this:
http://www.rosewoodandbrass.com/info...sBreakdown.jpg
but doesn't have a short screw at the base of the handle (#15), the
handle can twist slightly between two stops. It also doesn't have the
notch at the back of the base.

Cast into the lever cap is "SoJo", this is throwing me of on the google
search because "SoJo" alone generates over 1mil hits.

Any help would be appreciated.

RayV wrote:
I have an older plane and would like to know the manufacturer. I tried
google but am not getting good results.

The base is 2 1/2" x ~9 3/4 rounded in the front and an ogee in the
back. The black handle and knob are plastic or maybe bakelite. Around
the knob is cast "USA No 4", nothing else that I can see.

It looks very similar to this:
http://www.rosewoodandbrass.com/info...sBreakdown.jpg
but doesn't have a short screw at the base of the handle (#15), the
handle can twist slightly between two stops. It also doesn't have the
notch at the back of the base.

Cast into the lever cap is "SoJo", this is throwing me of on the google
search because "SoJo" alone generates over 1mil hits.

Any help would be appreciated.

I answered my own question.

A little more googling lead me to this:
http://archive.oldtools.org/archive_...ad= 1#message

The plane is a SoJo, duh. They were called "SoJo" from 1975 to 1985
then changed to "Sogard" then sold evberything to echo industries in
1997. The above message from oldtools.org said they sold a lot of
tools to the govt., which makes sense since I got this plane from an
abandoned tool box while in the AF.