Using the models of early Preston planes, Reid put together most of the ingredients he needed to establish a small, highly specialized tool manufactory. It would be easy to say that the heartbeat of Clico is Alan Reid himself, but I think he would agree with me that the quality of the tools comes from a team of traditional engineering metalworkers who care about what they make. In addition to Reid, two key men —production manager Neil Myford and chief engineer Geoff Hudson —both worked in the plane - making divisions for either Stanley or Record Ridgeway of Sheffield. Our tour of the facilities was conducted by Neil Myford, who first took us into the machine shop. We passed a series of milling machines, including a sophisticated CNC machine as it sprung through the throat of the plane, and with each subsequent stroke perfect shavings fell to the floor around my feet. From the machine shop we drove through the old parts of modern - day Sheffield to a small forge that housed some massive equipment , the 1 - 1/4" diameter steel rods became a 2 - 1/2" wide cutting iron that would soon be laser cut to shape to make the cutting iron of another Clifton hand plane.