I picked this up at a flea market for $10 this weekend. I don't think I did to bad pricewise . Questions are mainly how to ID it, (I've already taken it all apart and can't find any markings whatsoever) and what to do now, try to strip the paint and restore it to as original as I can or leave it alone? Any help would be greatly appreciated.  It is 14" long also.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Greg
http://www.thesawdustfactory.net/

Greg I would leave it as is, that's a cool color combination!  The most I would do to it is if you want it to be a user, check for sole flatness, if it's flat, wax it up. Then tune up the iron and make sure the rest of the iron works fine, the adjuster knob and the lateral lever etc. Then it's good to use. If the sole is not flat, leave it alone and put it on your fireplace mantel, to flatten the sole you'd have to take some wood off, I love the patina on the bottom and I personally would not touch it. Looks like an old Liberty perhaps. Either way you have either a good user, or more likely, and great mantle piece.

 

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

John, the sole is definitely not flat, but everything else works on it, just a bit stiff. 

 

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Greg
http://www.thesawdustfactory.net/

If you really insist on using it, you can run the sole over some 80 grit sand paper on a flat surface until the sole is all cleaned up, like the scary sharp method, then run the grits up to 400 and then wax the sole, what your trying to accomplish by doing this is flattening the sole. Or, you can do like I did once and it worked well, but my method really peeved some folks off who didn't like my desecrating an old plane, but the hockey sticks with em. Run the sole over your jointer, but first take a test piece of wood and set your jointer to take just a whisp of a shaving off. Then run your plane over the jointer, a sure fire way to flatten it. Tune up your mechanical parts and your on your way. Or, you can stick on a fireplace mantel!


Greg Aksdal said:

John, the sole is definitely not flat, but everything else works on it, just a bit stiff. 

 

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Greg
http://www.thesawdustfactory.net/

 

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

But whatever you do, I'd leave the paint and color on it. It's cool looking.


John Morris said:

If you really insist on using it, you can run the sole over some 80 grit sand paper on a flat surface until the sole is all cleaned up, like the scary sharp method, then run the grits up to 400 and then wax the sole, what your trying to accomplish by doing this is flattening the sole. Or, you can do like I did once and it worked well, but my method really peeved some folks off who didn't like my desecrating an old plane, but the hockey sticks with em. Run the sole over your jointer, but first take a test piece of wood and set your jointer to take just a whisp of a shaving off. Then run your plane over the jointer, a sure fire way to flatten it. Tune up your mechanical parts and your on your way. Or, you can stick on a fireplace mantel!

Greg Aksdal said:

 

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

 

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

I made a couple of wood hand planes and I did as John suggested to get the sole flat to start with. I ran it over the joiner a couple of times just lightly taking off wood until it was flat. Then I sanded and waxed it.

 

John Morris said:

If you really insist on using it, you can run the sole over some 80 grit sand paper on a flat surface until the sole is all cleaned up, like the scary sharp method, then run the grits up to 400 and then wax the sole, what your trying to accomplish by doing this is flattening the sole. Or, you can do like I did once and it worked well, but my method really peeved some folks off who didn't like my desecrating an old plane, but the hockey sticks with em. Run the sole over your jointer, but first take a test piece of wood and set your jointer to take just a whisp of a shaving off. Then run your plane over the jointer, a sure fire way to flatten it. Tune up your mechanical parts and your on your way. Or, you can stick on a fireplace mantel!

Greg Aksdal said:

 

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

I am no old plane expert, but it looks to me like the plane is an Old Stanley of manufacture around the time of 1900.

 

I say that because there was a transition period between the old all-wooden planes of the day, and the "new" all-metal planes. As the transition was made between the two types, there was this hybrid-design of wood and metal, which your plane obviously is. I place the date solely on the shape of the coffin-shaped cutting iron that is very close in appearance to a #140 Skew Angle Block Plane I once rebuilt. On that plane, the cutting iron was of the same style and a hand plane expert told me the plane was from 1900-1909...the original batch of #140 planes. Every shape on this tool also screams Stanley, from the shape of the Tote and Front knob, to the shape of the chip breaker, but it is hard to say for sure because Stanley Planes were copied by every manufacturer out there.

 

Overall the hybrid planes such as this were very short lived. You either loved old wooden planes, or accepted the "new" all metal planes, and the hybrid design was of little value. Marrying steel to wood meant reliance on a couple of screws for accuracy, and on the manufacturing side of things, it was far easier to just make a bigger casting that included the sole of the plane into the rest of the body of the plane. This also gave you a far more robust sole of iron, rather than wood, and most carpenters/woodworkers saw this virtue quickly.

 

But I am not knocking your plane down at all. It is an excellent find, well worth the 10 bucks you paid for it, as it represents a transition period in hand plane design. Myself, I love the hybrid-concept and thought of making my own similar hand plane using the metal body/wooden sole concept (I make my own hand tools from time to time starting from scratch). There is no doubt that while the all-metal style of plane is an improvement over this hybrid-wood/metal design, it is surely a great plane, and robust enough to last you many, many years of reliable service once you tune it up. And upon that topic, I hope you do just that, tune that hand plane up, get the thing in working order and use it. Hand planes were made to be used!!

 

Congratulations on a great find.

Looks like I'll have to do the sandpaper method, since I don't own a jointer, and I know better than to run it through the planer. 


John Morris said:

If you really insist on using it, you can run the sole over some 80 grit sand paper on a flat surface until the sole is all cleaned up, like the scary sharp method, then run the grits up to 400 and then wax the sole, what your trying to accomplish by doing this is flattening the sole. Or, you can do like I did once and it worked well, but my method really peeved some folks off who didn't like my desecrating an old plane, but the hockey sticks with em. Run the sole over your jointer, but first take a test piece of wood and set your jointer to take just a whisp of a shaving off. Then run your plane over the jointer, a sure fire way to flatten it. Tune up your mechanical parts and your on your way. Or, you can stick on a fireplace mantel!

Greg Aksdal said:

 

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

Travis, thanx for all the great info. After doing a little research I believe it to be a #27 transitoinal Stanley, I found some good info on handplane central, the difference is the length, they are saying 15" long and this one is 14". They are also saying that they were manufactured from 1869-1917. Anyway I'm happy with it, and that's all that really counts. 


Travis Johnson said:

I am no old plane expert, but it looks to me like the plane is an Old Stanley of manufacture around the time of 1900.

 

I say that because there was a transition period between the old all-wooden planes of the day, and the "new" all-metal planes. As the transition was made between the two types, there was this hybrid-design of wood and metal, which your plane obviously is. I place the date solely on the shape of the coffin-shaped cutting iron that is very close in appearance to a #140 Skew Angle Block Plane I once rebuilt. On that plane, the cutting iron was of the same style and a hand plane expert told me the plane was from 1900-1909...the original batch of #140 planes. Every shape on this tool also screams Stanley, from the shape of the Tote and Front knob, to the shape of the chip breaker, but it is hard to say for sure because Stanley Planes were copied by every manufacturer out there.

 

Overall the hybrid planes such as this were very short lived. You either loved old wooden planes, or accepted the "new" all metal planes, and the hybrid design was of little value. Marrying steel to wood meant reliance on a couple of screws for accuracy, and on the manufacturing side of things, it was far easier to just make a bigger casting that included the sole of the plane into the rest of the body of the plane. This also gave you a far more robust sole of iron, rather than wood, and most carpenters/woodworkers saw this virtue quickly.

 

But I am not knocking your plane down at all. It is an excellent find, well worth the 10 bucks you paid for it, as it represents a transition period in hand plane design. Myself, I love the hybrid-concept and thought of making my own similar hand plane using the metal body/wooden sole concept (I make my own hand tools from time to time starting from scratch). There is no doubt that while the all-metal style of plane is an improvement over this hybrid-wood/metal design, it is surely a great plane, and robust enough to last you many, many years of reliable service once you tune it up. And upon that topic, I hope you do just that, tune that hand plane up, get the thing in working order and use it. Hand planes were made to be used!!

 

Congratulations on a great find.

If you ever get it cleaned up enough so an logo shows up on the cutting iron of the plane, you can tell its age. Stanley (assuming it is a Stanley) changed logos every few years. The circular Stanley Logo is from 1900-1909 which looks about the age of your plane.

I'll look for that Travis

 

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Greg
http://www.thesawdustfactory.net/