Incomplete No 8 Plane

user 17340 · 1 Jul 2021

Hi. My wife's uncle passed on his old Stanley No 8 plane to me. It sat on top of his tool shelf as a dusty ornament for years. It now sits on my tool shelf as a cleaner ornament. It is a USA made pre WW1 model and I would happily sell this as I've never used more than a No 6 but the lever cap is missing. I think it may be one of the straight slot kind. The decision is to sell it incomplete or try to get an original cap and sell complete. The best price I've seen is about £50 from USA. Any thoughts on this dilemma - or any spare lever caps?

thetyreman · 1 Jul 2021

somebody on here might have a spare if you're lucky, I think the no8 is a unique size, you never know.

kwigly · 1 Jul 2021

Some of the old transitional planes also had 2-5/8" wide blades/caps (and that's what's on my No.8

)

D_W · 2 Jul 2021

kwigly said:
Some of the old transitional planes also had 2-5/8" wide blades/caps (and that's what's on my No.8)

They did, but they don't fit.

The second stanley plane that I got was a number 8 that turned out to have a worn through (no bs) cap iron - it must've been fixtured on something planing dirty abrasive wood.

I never found a good vintage stock cap. The trouble is obvious - only one plane uses the parts for the irons, lever caps, caps, etc.

I'd sell the plane as is without a lever cap - unless something has changed. When there's a plane where parts are hard to get, the plane will often be worth more as parts. There's no shame in it. If you can have 50 planes working and 50 sitting around missing something critical or 75 working, the latter seems better to me.

kwigly · 2 Jul 2021

This is my working Stanley 608 plane, with the lever cap (and blade/chipbreaker) salvaged very cheaply from an old transitional Stanley 33. (I did have to file a new adjuster slot in the older chipbreaker, but if you already have a No.8 chipbreaker this would not be necessary)

D_W · 2 Jul 2021

I should've been more precise, "they don't fit" meaning the chipbreaker. Never tried the lever cap (But drilling and filing a new slot is always possible in a chipbreaker)