Any Stanley collectors out there?

[Amateurrestorer]

Hello again.Just a quick note .Do we have any Stanley plane collectors out there? I am seriously thinking of selling most of my bench plane collection that I have been acquiring over a number of yearsbecause I never use them .I have mainly USA made planes and they range from #3 to #6 some of them are quite early and a lot of them are #4's .I did try to get a #4 from each decade of the 20th century but gave up aftter collecting 6!.It would aso be nice to hear any comments good or bad about Stanley planes in general because I would'nt sell my #7 for all the tea in Tesco.

 

[jonny boy]

HI, I've found Stanley planes very good on the whole as well.
cheers,
jon.

 

[Colin C]

Hi

I have a few ( I do mean a few unlike some, Alf where are you 8-[ :-$ )

Most of mine the of the low knob type ( but my 3# had new handles made with a low knob at the front ).
I do like them and have not had many problems with them ( well not the old ones I have now ) and I have not used any of the LN or LV yet. :wink:

Also like you I have just got myself a #7c and like it lots and it also has a Japanese blade in it, I will not be selling that also :wink:

Ps I got it for £45 with p+p from Ebay, not that long ago

 

[Shivers]

I have various stanleys--but none of the specialist ones.
I wouldn't mind getting a 2" badger plane some time.
In 24 yrs of general cabinet making i've never found many situations that couldn't be covered by No7,60.5,778,No4,310,& a couple of others,plus sharp chisels.
I use basic stanley spokeshaves(non adjustable)served me well & highly tunable,
My No7 is my best friend with hock blade & split clifton cap iron,when i sharpen the blade i tend to do 5 blades all at once as i have around 8 2 3/8's & 3 block plane blades.i have a number of other planes No6c,No5,a stanley & sargent transitionals --these i rarely use.
Thats a lot of collecting you've done there,i had an attempt at this but gave up after a few yrs as i started to get bored with the concept of owning tools you never use.

regards.

 

[Lord Nibbo]

Hello again.Just a quick note .Do we have any Stanley plane collectors out there?

:roll: :lol: \/ ROTFL it may have been better to say "Is there anyone who does not own a Stanley?" Your question is like asking "do you work with wood?" I'll be interested to read all the answers. :lol:

 

[Amateurrestorer]

Good point, but I was only trying to gauge how many people,if any had the same bug / disease I have. I recently came to terms with it by stating " I am a Stanley collector" .The first step as they say is the biggest. I was under the impression that everybody on the site was an LN ,Veritas or Clifton owner and frowned upon lesser planes. In reply to one of the replies ( that does'nt sound right ) I have a badger plane also by Stanley and I never use it - hoping to someday but not yet. Anyway now I'm off to order a low angle block plane by veritas ,dont't tell the wife.

 

[ajbell]

Are you selling any of the planes?

 

[Amateurrestorer]

Yes I am certainly thinking that way at the moment.

 

[Alf]

I did start down the slippery route of "must have one of each size", but I've given that up now and tend towards "which ones do I use" and occasionally "which ones can't I quite bear to part with" Currently in bench planes I have 1 x #3 (GB), 2 x #4 1/2 (USA - one will get sold eventually when I've checked it actually works), 1 x #5 1/2 (USA - 2 1/4" iron), 1 x #7 (GB) and 2 x #10 (one with cracked cheek ) Then there are the Records, but I don't see enough to be in any real danger of collecting - I hope... Only one LN bench plane and no Clifton or LV bevel down bench planes at all. As I've said recently elsewhere, really I need to get out there and sort out this terrible deficiency. :roll:

Cheers, Alf

 

[Pekka Huhta]

Ok, the brave ones then. I'm Pekka and I'm a cllector. (Darn it's a hard word to spell .

It all started about three years ago when I bought all the tools and patterns of an old boatbuilder's shop. There were too many of them, and on the other hand too little. I sold the tools I did not need and thought to be happy. Bought a tool every now and then when needed. Untill I found ebay.

It's like being a drug dealer. I buy three planes, tune them up, sell two and keep one for myself. It sounds ideal, like, "free tools for everyone". Just that if I count all the time I've spent with the planes I've been selling, I probably could have bought a full set of Lie-Nielsens with those workshop hours And I don't want to sell those quick-tuned "looks about right" planes, so it takes some time.

The planes I have on my own cabinet are 2, 3, 4, 4½, 5, 7, 18, 45, 65, 75, 78, 80, 102, 151 (2 of them) and a shelf of woodies.

One of the reasons for getting all of them was to see how they work and how I work with them. I have found out for example that #2 is a over-hyped and pretty useless plane although I had high hopes for it. I usually grab the #3 and thought that #2 would be even nicer, but I just get cramps if I try to cram my fist to the handle. On the other hand I thought 4½ would be just a hefty #4 but I found it purrfict for smoothing out larger surfaces.

I'm also selling all the extras out and probably some from my own cabinet as well.

Pekka

 

[Scrit]

Oh boy! I started "collecting" sometime in the late 1970s, so I went through the "must have one of everything" phase as well, although fortunately it wore off before I got to having a #444 or a #196 (arguably the most useless plane ever designed). I have to say that I was amazed at how much useless or near useless junk Stanley actually produced produced! I found that planes like the #1 and #2 were just too small for me to hold let alone use - I find even a #3 isn't that comfortable - that some planes seem to be designed to inflict pain to the user as a norm (e.g. the #164, and yes I did have one of those, a real one found in the bottom of a bucket full of water where I reckoned it was arguably more use...... the LN copy is much better), that many of the rebate planes had fences which flexed or self unscrewed (well, almost all of them, especially the rare ones like the #278 and #289), and what was the point of all of those block planes. Just how many price points are there in the market? These days I'm trying to restrict myself to owning just a user set, but it's hard, so very hard....... Especially if I go over and teek aa peek at Patrick's Blood & Gore. Nurse, pass my DFP pills please, I feel a slide down the slope coming :shock:

Scrit

 

[Pekka Huhta]

One thing I forgot to mention: the disease can hit even if you have survived with 2-3 planes for all of your life. My first own was a #102 copy and I managed with that, a few woodies and later a #4 to go with for twenty years. And then, suddenly, a big slip.

It's funny to be out there doing a few odd jobs to a friend with just a backsack of tools and being perfectly happy with just two planes. Just like the other planes even would not even exist.

Pekka

 

[Alf]

Gents, you've veered into planes other than bench planes. Please, don't do that. It could look bad if I have to do that... 8-[ :lol:

 

[Scrit]

Gents, you've veered into planes other than bench planes.

And exactly where else would one use a plane? :wink: