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actually it was your original comment that made me re-read the advert again a bit more carefully and for the point about the irons being made elsewhere to sink in - I think there is a more subtle clue about the way they were made also: 'For several generations the steel used In Stanley Plane...

I was going to go on to say that Brent Beach did the smart thing and worked out the date of the pamphlet (1937- not 1921 as reported in the other link to a scan http://galootopia.com/old_tools/planes/ ... dish-iron/)) by adding 65 years to the date Stanley started making planes I also think...

yep I know Record in later years used Qualcast for some of their castings, but in their prime (30s) they had a huge factory and I had previously assumed part of it was being put to good use melting blister steel in order to make their own special recipe 'tungsten' cast steel blades. Now I am...

interesting thought Custard, and look what has turned up in my laminated iron investigations. to quote the 1937 leaflet 'For several generations the steel used In Stanley Plane Cutters has been especially made for Stanley, in one of the Steel mills in Sheffield, England, and it is called...

doh! of course!

to quote Richard Hammond* of Top Gear fame 'The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough'. I hope these deep thoughts will help you see eye-to-eye on this one. more fascinating info is pending on 'modern' thin laminated blades - hold on to your hats! * possible incorrect...

thanks for the Barraclough links - my copy is on the way for a very reasonable £6.41 including postage!

also, all my convoluted reasoning about how to justify GS=German Steel was unnecessary, from the Howarth catalogue: doh!

... modern in the sense of 20th century I think. they are certainly a boon to people using oil stones to do their grinding/honing, which may explain why they have not been reintroduced with the modern trend for fat special alloy irons (which seem to go hand-in-hand with more extravagant...

I have only recently been through the process you are embarking on Tasky and if I were starting again I would follow the advice to get a double sided norton india stone. just as effective but less annoying than sandpaper and only a few pounds more expensive. Either will work, mind you...

thanks for the correction about the meaning of 'German Steel' Andy - every time I think I have made a bit of progress in understanding this topic I immediately find something to undo my new found confidence! You are quite right about the clue being in the usage of the term related to saws...

it is a fascinating area Andy - much of the 'journal of the arts' discussion on steel relate to various attempts to come up with cheaper alternatives to the eye-wateringly expensive cast steel, and nowhere in the discussion does the idea that cast-steel was signficantly better go seriously...

yes I remember seeing instructions for tuning recalcitrant wooden planes in the Woodworker compendium that C Schwartz published - i will have to take another look.

in my reading I have been looking at some of the contemporary explanations of steel manufacture and based on this account ( from the 1850s) I do not think German Steel would be chosen for edge tools, particularly when you keep encountering the continued insistence in these accounts (mainly from...

yes that is another intriguing bit of info + the fact that Stanley did produce adverts justifying their decision. I wonder if they were actually a re-introduction after solid cast steel became dominant? Although then you have to ask why Record would have done the same without any fanfare (no...

I'd like to see a video on resolving clogging issues if you get time - I have one coffin smoother which is still prone to clogging and I am a bit nervous I might ruin it if I fiddle with it too much.

so....it seems likely that until the middle of the 19th century (at least) laminated irons were the preferred option, being both cost effective for the manufacturers and being easier to sharpen for the tradesmen who used them. We also know they eventually fell out of fashion in the 20th...

untarnished as I am by the filthy lucre of advertising I can tell you with a clear conscience that that my rag-in-a-can-oiler was made from a Heinz baked-beans can. Obviously not as good as Waitrose peeled plum tomatoes per Mr Sellers, but then I am a tyro. to wrap up my view on the RM videos...

I was going to ask you about that - one of the things RM says in his video is that many of the old wooden planes available are in such a bad state that they require some of the difficult 'trad' plane building skills to fix, and it can thus be argued building a simple laminated one is easier than...

I agree entirely about the importance of personality and free content to establish an audience, and actually I have a lot of time for free content too. My point about it is that it varies in quality signficantly, and this is understandable when you think that it is funded largely by online...