Show us your handplanes

[CRSINMICH]

Bill: Your CRAFTSMAN block plane really was made by Stanley. At various times Millers Falls, Sargent, and Stanley made block planes for CRAFTSMAN. The number 187.37052 below the logo on the cutting iron identifies it as a Stanley. I haven't been able to date it yet but your guess of 1960's is probably correct. Great find on a very useful plane.

 

[Jim C.]

That looks like an earlier version of the #289, milled on the sides for one lobe nickers, versus later versions that had three lobes. Those correct one lobed nickers are tough to find. I’m still looking for a left side nicker for my user #289.

 

[jimreed2160]

That looks like an earlier version of the #289, milled on the sides for one lobe nickers, versus later versions that had three lobes. Those correct one lobed nickers are tough to find. I’m still looking for a left side nicker for my user #289.

Well, this plane has its nickers but I got tired of looking for nickers that would work on my user plane. So I made my own. They are really pretty easy. Get a piece of precision ground stock that is the correct thickness and draw a nicker with a sharpie. Cut it out with a Dremel and cut off wheel, drill a hole, and then file the thing into submission. Vise grips make a good holder.

 

[doublearon98]

Just redid this stanley handyman with the blade adjustment for my dad.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[jimreed2160]

The Handyman line was lower quality and doesn't get much love but I have always found them to be good user planes. It is overkill to use a Lie Nielsen to take down the bottom of a sticky door. Good job. I am sure you dad will appreciate it.

 

[Jim C.]

....... It is overkill to use a Lie Nielsen to take down the bottom of a sticky door........

It is?

 

[jimreed2160]

It is?

I have never had good luck using my good planes for carpentry tasks. There is always buried metal of some sort--like those dang corrugated fasteners. So I like a carpentry plane with a carpentry blade that I can grind out and not feel bad.

 

[Jim C.]

For about $25 a handheld metal detector is pretty handy.

 

[crguy]

I have never had good luck using my good planes for carpentry tasks. There is always buried metal of some sort--like those dang corrugated fasteners. So I like a carpentry plane with a carpentry blade that I can grind out and not feel bad.

Most of us don't try to plane wood without checking for metal first.

 

[jimreed2160]

It is?

Most of us don't try to plane wood without checking for metal first.

I guess that was my point. When I do cabinetwork on my bench, I am very careful about wood selection. Metal is a no-no. Heck, even dirty wood is a no-no.

But when I do carpentry repair, I have no choice over the wood. Often it is planed in place. In the case of a door, I cannot even get it on my bench. Deck boards have to be planed in place.

True story. A buddy of mine had a warped deck board on his dock. It was always catching something and bothering him. So I fixed up an old Handyman plane that I had and gifted it to him. A few minutes of hacking away and the problem was solved. Did he hit a deck nail? Probably not but he could have and it would not have mattered.

 

[CRSINMICH]

GAGE TOOL COMPANY #4 SELF SETTING PLANE​

I've heard about Gage Planes for few years but until yesterday I hadn't seen one. This one turned up at the estate sale of a hoarder. Gage Tool Co. of Vineland, New Jersey produced them from 1885 - 1919. They were bought out by (who else?) Stanley who continued to produce the wooden bottom version as well as an all metal version until 1934. I'm looking forward to doing a careful restoration.

 

[jimreed2160]

CRS--Good find. It should clean up well. And then you can discover if the claim of "best plane in the world" is still valid.

 

[Thrumcap]

Well, the BedRock 608 Type 6 restore is now complete. After a body rust cleaning, japanning polish, and refinishing of the wood with tung oil, this plane is ready to roll.













Thrumcap

So I have a question about japanning on Stanley planes.

Here is a BedRock 608 Type 6. The entire plane is dull and appears to have been gone over with black shoe polish/flat black paint, including the cap. It cleans off with some effort. There’s a shiny wear spot on the body near the left of the front knob. Using polishing compound on a tiny area, the shiny spot can be expanded.











Japanning doesn’t degrade like this, right? i’ve seen a few planes like this online here and there. Was this a Stanley thing?

I’d like to advise the person who is going to be refinishing this. I think polishing down to the gloss japanned coat and evaporusting the minor tarnishing on the body is the way to go. Any thoughts?

Thrumcap

 

[jimreed2160]

Great job!

 

[CRSINMICH]

Thrumcap: WOW! That looks terrific!

 

[CRSINMICH]

KRENOV STYLE PLANES​

Another estate sale find. They are quite well done but there are no maker's marks. They may have been kits. Oddly, neither plane had a wedge bar to hold the wedge tightly against the iron. Every other Krenov style plane I've seen has one. I didn't notice the pencil sketches on the wedges until I got home. Perhaps the craftsman hadn't quite finished before he became the "Dearly Departed". I'm taking it as a cosmic reminder to get some of my projects done. NOW!

 

[jimreed2160]

Nice find. Someone spent some time on that pair.

 

[CRSINMICH]

RECENT ACQUISITIONS​

On a recent vacation to the East Coast, I picked up these five planes. Three were flea market finds and one was at an antiques mall. The planes are: 1) CASEY & CO. plow plane with boxwood nuts and a 5/16ths iron. 2) CHAPIN STEPHENS CO. No 126 quarter inch beading plane (boxed). 3) A. MATHIESON & SON eighth inch grooving plane. 4) GREENFIELD TOOL CO. No 3 Match Planes.

 

[jimreed2160]

CRS--Those planes are in great condition. I like the beader the most.

 

[slodat]

I’ve just started down the path of hand tool woodworking. I bought a few planes. First one arrived. Stanley No 6.

 

[kenc184]

This is most of my Norris collection. Every smoother Norris made- with many duplicates except an A17. Quite a few jointers up to 22-1/2". A few are post war but most are "real" Norrises. Wonderful to look at and handle. They make great users too.
Wish I had the time to get back into woodworking seriously, but car resto work, machine tools and vises seem to have taken over for now.

 

[ez-duzit]

4--great collection! Must have taken real dedication.

 

[kenc184]

Collected over the last twenty years. Probably worth about two thirds of what I've paid for it!

 

[3baygarage]

Wow, impressive collection. Very nice.


Do you guys know anything about a large transitional plane with a brass sole? No pics, sorry. I’ve wondered if it was done by a craftsman. It many brass flat head screws but very well done.

 

[Jim C.]

Collected over the last twenty years. Probably worth about two thirds of what I've paid for it!

That’s a GREAT collection, and you’re probably right about it’s current value. I have a few old Stanleys and I know I can’t get back what I have into them. That being said, collecting them was fun, and something I still enjoy doing. Again, you have real nice collection!

Jim C.

 

[crguy]

Wow, impressive collection. Very nice.


Do you guys know anything about a large transitional plane with a brass sole? No pics, sorry. I’ve wondered if it was done by a craftsman. It many brass flat head screws but very well done.

Most likely an owner modification.

 

[crguy]

This is most of my Norris collection. Every smoother Norris made- with many duplicates except an A17. Quite a few jointers up to 22-1/2". A few are post war but most are "real" Norrises.

A great group of planes! Not easy to find in the US.

 

[kenc184]

A great group of planes! Not easy to find in the US.

Too true.
I started collecting them after Garret Hacks handplane book came out in the mid nineties, I bet there's a lot of folks who were inspired by that book.
Anyway, at the time I though that Norris planes would be a better investment than the stock market which I thought was massively over valued. Well, genius that I am the Stock market has tripled or quadrupled since then and the prices of Norris planes is in the toilet thanks in large part to David Stanley selling off his massive collection over the last few years.

So the bad news is my retirement didn't grow with the stock market. The good news is I can go to my workshop and pick 'em up and admire the build quality, the heft, and the gorgeous rosewood grain.

I use an A2 as my figured wood plane, and a 22-1/2" A1 for jointing the same. In general though I use a pair of my flat top Bedrocks for most things, a 604-1/2 for smoothing and a 607 or 608 for jointing/flattening.

Say, my Bedrock collection is worth about a half of what I paid for it too.....

 

[kenc184]

That’s a GREAT collection, and you’re probably right about it’s current value. I have a few old Stanleys and I know I can’t get back what I have into them. That being said, collecting them was fun, and something I still enjoy doing. Again, you have real nice collection!

Jim C.

Jim, I think that's true of ALL my planes. Not one of them would break even!


3Bay - thanks!

 

[slodat]

A few new friends arrived today.



Stanley 9-1/2 block
Stanley 60-1/2 low angle block
Stanley No 4
Fulton 3711 (No 5)
Fulton 3708 (No 7 corrugated)

All were gone through by “tablesawtom”. Soles and sides ground to 0.0015”. Bought them as a set from the guy that bought them from Tom and never used them.

 

[slodat]

Today’s delivery.

 

[jumbojak]

Here's an old Defiance that I have almost brought back to working order. The screws for the handles were missing so I drilled and tapped for 1/4-20 hardware and ground some phillips head screws to fit in the counterbores. I keep losing my packs of washers though...

 

[CRSINMICH]

Here is a group shot of most of the planes I have reconditioned since fall. There are two No7's, two No6's (including a 606) two No5's, two transitional planes, and various grooving, smoothing, beading and molding planes. Next up will be a sharpening marathon.

Anyone who likes "Where's Waldo?" should have no trouble finding the Starrett combination square that snuck into the photo.

 

[ez-duzit]

C--why duplicates of so many?

 

[3baygarage]

Most likely an owner modification.

Thanks, too hard to convince myself one way or the other. I know it’s worthless without pics, I’ll try and get some in the future. I’m not a plane guy but I know it’s unusual.

 

[CRSINMICH]

EZ: Often I bought them just because the price was right and I enjoy the reconditioning process. Once they are finished, I will sell any that are truly excess. On the other hand, one of the No6's is simply a No6 while the other one is a Bedrock 606. One of the No5's is pre-frog adjustment screw so it's older and rarer. One of the transitionals is a No26 and the other is a No27. The 26 is also older and has a slightly different method of holding the metal to the wood. The No7's are nearly identical so one of them will be released to the wild. What you can't see in the photo is the two No5's I already have. One is tuned to take heavy cuts almost like a scrub plane and the other is set to take finer finishing cuts.
I tend to go overboard with things, but I have used, and do use, all of the planes that I reconditioned before this batch.

 

[drivesitfar]

ALL: I need to post a few pictures of some of my planes and get to using them. I have a few of these big old wood ones that are about 2 foot long and about 3 inches wide that Jim mentioned were used to plane the sides of old 2 by's.

I do have a few 2 by's to plane this spring so maybe i'll pull out the hand planes and give the power planers a rest once in a while. better pics of the plane to come.

do most old wood planes have the manufacturer's name on the blade or the body of the plane?

 

[CRSINMICH]

drives: In my limited experience with wooden bodied planes, most will have a maker's name stamped into the toe or, less frequently, into the heal. A fair number of the wooden planes I own also have owners names stamped on them which are sometimes overstruck and replaced by the name of the next owner. The irons will usually have a maker's name too, although not necessarily the same name as on the plane body. Most makers also sold irons separately so craftsmen could make the bodies themselves.


That's quite a pile of 2 bys you have there. If you get one or two of your long bodied wooden planes reconditioned you might be surprised at how well they work but, with that much lumber, you'll soon realize what apprentices were used for.

 

[slodat]

All of these were purchased restored, ready to go:



Last ones I’m buying for a while arrived yesterday. Bailey No 7 and Union No 3.

 

[drivesitfar]

CRS: thanks for the information. let's just call all my cedar planing exercise and maybe a bit therapeutic too. also I LOVE THE SMELL OF CEDAR IN THE MORNING or anytime really.

SD: nice looking group!! you have a nice mix of vintage and high tech new stuff in your cool shop.