What era is this Craftsman logo from?

[pendragon1998]

Posted this in the planes thread, but was hoping for a wider audience to answer the age question. The logo looks like the underlined logo without the underline.

Here's my newest, a Craftsman 3732 low angle block plane, equivalent to a Stanley 65, but I believe it might have been made by Millers Falls, as indicated by the 'BB'. The box doesn't have any branding, at least the part of the box that survived doesn't.

Does anybody know how old this one is?

 

[lbgradwell]

That's awesome.

I don't recall that script, but the BB code is estimated to have run from ~1939-50.

That plane will provide good clues to the manufacturer behind BB (the list will be quite short and MF may well be correct) as it has not been seen attached to planes before (on Lauver's Craftsman code list).

Are there any clues on the box?

 

[sselander]

Here is a good case that the 3732 plane was made by Sargent:

https://workingbyhand.wordpress.com/tag/clone-planes/

an excerpt:
"For example consider the block planes from the Craftsman catalog (circa 1960), specifically the 3704 and 3732. Both can be uniquely identified as Sargent planes because of their unique throat mouthpiece with “cammed adjuster“, patented in 1904 (Patent #220,834)."

 

[lbgradwell]

1934-1944, contract production made by New Britain Machine Co.

The OP is asking about the logo on the plane; he just provides the Circle-H logo as a comparison...

 

[lbgradwell]

Here is a good case that the 3732 plane was made by Sargent...

It seems that the 3732 model changed over time. Some of them were almost certainly made by Sargent, but I'm pretty confident the one shown above is a Stanley #65. We need to wait for Jim C. (or someone else) to wander in to confirm that.

Can you post some more photos of your 3732, pendragon1998? Some from the top showing the details of that knuckle joint please...

 

[pendragon1998]

Sure; I will try to get those pics tomorrow. Sorry, just now saw the latest posts from 2/25.

 

[pendragon1998]

Here are some more photos.

 

[pendragon1998]

And a few more.

 

[lbgradwell]

Outstanding documentation job, pendragon1998!

Planes aren't really my area, but I'm now prepared to say I'm almost certain that is a Stanley product. And that provides pretty compelling evidence that the BB code is not Vlchek (as has been the speculation to date), but Stanley.

Thank you for taking the time to post.

 

[pendragon1998]

I need to look at other Stanley 65 (S65) block planes, but I compared it to one a guy was showing off on youtube that had some good views of the parts. The two planes are virtually identical, but there are some details that are a little different.

Differences I noted (other than branding stuff):
The knurling on the adjustment knob is different. The double curve between the parts of the knuckle joint appear to be slightly deeper on the S65. The iron on the S65 had 10 notches, whereas the C3732 has 7. The base that the adjuster rides in is a bit longer on the S65, extending back a little further. Also, there appear to be some minor differences in the ribs on the center of the casting.

However, I wouldn't say that these mean it's not a Stanley. Any of those differences could simply be due to tweaks in the design made over the years (i.e., different 'types'). I'd have to see more examples of the S65, but I'm also pretty satisfied that the C3732 was probably made by Stanley.

ETA:
Here is a pic of someone else's S65.

 

[pendragon1998]

I was looking through some old Craftsman tool catalogs at blackburn tools and thought I'd share what I learned about the Craftsman 3732 low angle block plane.


The earliest I found the 3732 was in the 1941 catalog, where it's listed as a 'low angle knuckle joint plane'. Interestingly, note that the Craftsman logo appears to be included on the knuckle part of the cap. My plane doesn't have a marking there. The larger smoothing plane features the fully underlined Craftsman logo, unlike mine, which is missing the underline.

It remained in the catalog in 1942.

And again showed up in a 1957 catalog.

There was a 3732 listed in 1960, but the design appears to have been changed (different manufacturer, perhaps?)

The 3732 was not listed with the other planes in 1964, so I assume that it was discontinued at some point between 1960 and 1964.

Thus, the design of my plane appears to have been manufactured starting in 1941 (or possibly earlier, but I didn't see it in earlier catalogs) and switching to a new design between 1957 and 1960.



.

 

[pendragon1998]

Here's a Stanley no. 9 1/2, the equivalent of some Craftsman 3704s (later ones were made by another company, perhaps Sargent). I post it here mainly to show the box, which is a close match to the Craftsman 3732 box I have.

Craftsman 3732 box:

Stanley 9 1/2 box from an ebay auction:

I'm on the hunt for a Stanley made Craftsman 3704. There are a lot of non-stanley ones out there, but the Stanley ones appear to be less frequently available. A great one sold a week or two ago on ebay, but I wasn't really looking at that point, so I missed it. It would be cool to have a complete set of the Stanley planes Craftsman was offering at the early stage.