[Sleeper]

So finally after years of admiring Plane collections in woodworking videos, I want a small collection. I’ve been looking at planes on eBay and I’m just blown away at the range of prices. Some are just so nice looking and are selling cheap while others are rusted and nasty with very high prices. I just can’t make any sense of it.

Anyway I’m looking for a small working collection and just don’t know what I need. I have a #6 corrugated plane and a 605 smooth plane. I also have a #3 plane that is cracked beyond repair, that I’d like to replace.

Any suggestions?

 

[woodnthings]

I've bought about 10 on Ebay

Yah, they range all over the place, but overall I am happy with what I got for what I paid. All need the Evaporust soaking treatment and cleaned and sharpen up nicely. The wood totes and knobs were not always in the best shape. I got some nice rabbeting plane single and double bladed and some 4s, and 5s and a couple of 7's. That's all I need for now. I post a photo of the "collection"

 

[Sleeper]

I’m thinking maybe I should have all of the same brand with different sizes if it’s going to be a collection. I have Stanley Bedrock so I guess I should look for those, but I don’t see any smaller sizes in bedrock.

There sure are a lot really nice looking Craftsman planes in a lot of sizes. They would not need restoring which I’m not interested in, but by the price of them it doesn’t look like much of an investment.

 

[Dave Paine]

Reading "working" says to me you want a collection of good user vintage hand planes.

The potential list can be long, depending on your projects.

For bench planes, the No. 3 and No. 4 have almost the same length of sole, No. 3 - 8in and No. 4 - 9in. The No. 3 has 1 3/4in iron. The No. 4 has 2in iron.

The No. 5 has 14in sole, but shares the same iron as the No. 4, 2in.

The No. 6 and No. 7 share the same width of iron - 2 3/8in, but different sole lengths. No. 6 is 18in and No. 7 is 22 in.

The No. 8 is the longest plane Stanley produced and the widest iron, 2 5/8in wide and 24in long sole.

This gives you an idea on what parts may be interchangeable.

For Stanley - Bailey, I have 2 @ No. 4, 1 @ No. 5, 1 @ No. 6 and 1 @ No. 7 in the restoration queue with the intent to sell after restoration.

I also have what looks like a Craftsman No. 3 missing the lever cap.

I also have a No. 8 but I intend to keep this after restoration.

Beyond the bench planes, there are router planes, shoulder planes, scraper planes, block planes. The list can go on. I expect others will provide their own list.

Of my Stanley-Bailey vintage bench planes, I use the No. 4, 5, and 6 the most.

 

[Sleeper]

Thanks Dave, That's perfect all I know about planes is that they are different lengths. I'm going to start making a list of what they are used for like a "Jack Plane". I see them but don't know what they are used for.

Also I have a 605, but don't know the difference between it and and a #6. I bought a #6 but have to wait until it arrives before I can compare them.

 

[Sleeper]

OMG Bill that's a large collection. I sure wasn't expecting that.:huh:

 

[Gilgaron]

I started out with my grandpa's planes, which included a Stanley Two Tone #5 Jack Plane, a old Stanley Bailey #6 Fore Plane and a nearly unbranded (illegible on the iron) #5 1/2. So, very similar to what you have. To round out the set I bought a Sargent #4 smoother and Stanley Bailey #8 jointer on eBay and my sister gave me a second Stanley Sweetheart #4.

Here is my order of operations with a rough board that ends up using all of them:
-I plane down an edge of the board with my jointer plane so I can see what the face grain direction will be.
-I remove the rough mill marks with a coarsely set #5 Jack Plane
-Once the high points are smooth I switch to the #6 Fore Plane and traverse the board until it is fairly smooth
-I true up the face with the #8 jointer plane
-I smooth out any tearout with the smoothing #4 planes
-Touch up with a scraper if needed
-Use a marking guage followed by a pencil in the line to delineate where to plane the other face to and then proceed as above
-cut the rough edge off with the table saw to have a squared board; I believe the pure old school method would be a rip handsaw and jointer again or panel gauge and scrub or jointer.

So really you just need two more planes if you want to do that: a smoother (3 or 4) and a jointer (7 or 8). If you just want users I wouldn't think you'll want to exclusively find Bedrocks, as they will cost more.

 

[tc65]

I don't have any pictures of my planes together, but I'll list what I have/use them for as well as what I want.

SB #7 - flattening boards and edges.

SB #5 - it has a heavily cambered iron for rapid removal of wood (thicknessing). With that iron, it functions as a fore plane. I also have a regular iron for that plane, but don't use it much now that I have a #7.

SB #4 - smooth plane - final smoothing of boards after the #5 and #7.

SB #60 1/2 block plane - it is a low angle plane and is great for trimming end grain and difficult figured grain. I also use this on my shooting board for small pieces.

Stanley #92 shoulder plane. This is one of the recently manufactured Stanleys - trimming shoulders and rabbits.

Veritas #80 cabinet scraper. This is a recent acquisition and is very close to the SB #80 cabinet scraper. It is fast becoming one of my favorite tools.

Veritas Low angle smooth plane. This is a very new purchase and is not in my possession yet (tomorrow). I just bought this plane in Lee Valley's Cyber Monday sale.

Other planes I want/need. Router plane, plow plane, rabbet plane and a #8 just to compare the use of it to my #7.


Side notes: The Stanley Bedrock planes were only the bench planes ranging in number from 602 - 608. The last number is equivalent to the regular Stanley Bailey numbered bench planes. I.E. your 605 is the same size/function as a Stanley Bailey #5. Typically the Bedrock planes command a higher price than the other SB planes - I've never used one so I can't comment on usability of them versus the "regular" Stanley Bailey bench planes.

I don't know if you have this link, this is the source that many go to for information on SB planes: http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan0a.html

It has all the information and more than you could ever want on Stanley Bailey Planes.

One other note - when I use the abbreviation of SB it is for Stanley Bailey, not Stanly Bedrock.

 

[Dave Paine]

Also I have a 605, but don't know the difference between it and and a #6. I bought a #6 but have to wait until it arrives before I can compare them.

The Stanley Bedrock 605 is the Bedrock model equivalent of the Stanley-Bailey No. 5.

The Bedrock model had a frog adjustment mechanism decades before Stanley added it to the Bailey line. The Bedrock frog adjustment is very different to the design in the Stanley - Bailey.

A Bedrock 606 would be the equivalent of the Stanely - Bailey No. 6 you got from EBay.

Stanley got a higher price for the Bedrock model back in the day. Some of this was marketing, some may have been ability to keep its tuning better.

I love the lines of the "flat top" Bedrocks, like your 605. The normal humps of the side have a flat top. Reminds me of the Spier Infill planes of old. To my eyes the lines are more graceful. The earlier Bedrocks had the normal hump on the sides. Not sure when this changed to the flat top, but the first Bedrocks I saw were the flat tops.

 

[Sleeper]

Wow! Thanks everybody this is great stuff. I'm going to study on this for a while and then see what I can pick up on eBay.

 

[Tom King]

A LOT of planes get moved through ebay. If you set your upper limit on a particular one, and look often, some deals can be had. The Bedrocks always go for more money. Once in a while, one will pop up with a good "Buy It Now" price.

Personally, I like the Record planes, but have bought Stanleys too. For instance, I was looking for a Record 8, and was the 6th person to view a Stanley 8 at Buy it Now for 75 bucks that had almost 100% Japanning, and a full length blade, like it had never been used, so I hit the button right then.

All of mine are users, and I didn't have to fight rust. They all needed the bottoms flattened, but I'm set up to do that.



I never did figure out why they bothered to make a Bedrock 5 (605), but it would make a decent shooting board plane.

 

[Sleeper]

Thanks Tom, that's great eBay advice.
I don't want to spend a lot of money and I'm in no hurry so I can do just that.

I've been looking for a week now and I don't remember even seeing Record. I've never heard of them before.

 

[acowboy]

Beware..you might get bitten. You will find one, fix it up and it works great, looks great. Maybe one more and I don't have one of those.
Good luck, you will enjoy yourself.

 

[timetestedtools]

I admire those that pick one subset and stick with it. I started with some Bailey users. Having worked with wood all my life planes were not new to me. Also my wife loved to antique and I needed a way to make the time useful. I started buying some and restoring. First it was Baileys, then I found some nice old Sargents. I picked up a Shaw patent #15 for $5, so they became a passion. How about a cute little Ohio Tool. How could you not want more. Or the rare Ohio #7 with a frog adjuster. It just never stopped. Then a $5 gage and a $30 Siegley.

Vintage Craftsman are good users, but don't currently hold much value. Stanley-Baileys can be great, easy to find and some are very valuable. Sargents are the same but information is harder to find on them. There are so many good brands, if you can pick just one and go with it, you'll keep the collection smaller. Best of all, have some fun!!

 

[Sleeper]

Beware..you might get bitten. You will find one, fix it up and it works great, looks great. Maybe one more and I don't have one of those.
Good luck, you will enjoy yourself.

Oh god I hope not, years ago I was fascinated with model trains and $10k later I’m asking what the hell was wrong with me. That’s why I’m trying to limit myself to just what I’ll be using.

 

[acowboy]

Oh god I hope not, years ago I was fascinated with model trains and $10k later I’m asking what the hell was wrong with me. That’s why I’m trying to limit myself to just what I’ll be using.

Good luck on that one...:icon_smile:
Anyways, have fun, post some pics on some of your progress, think we all like to see a good clean up or restore.

 

[adot45]

When I started with planes ( fairly recently ) I didn't have any sort of plan. Even though they are cheap on ebay I soon realized I couldn't get them all. So I narrowed it to Stanley's and further narrowed it to Stanley bench planes. Then I decided that I would get even more picky and narrowed it to Stanley bench planes with keyhole caps. (pre 1933) I use sawmill lumber when I can and so I also have a #40 scrub plane that takes the cupped edges and high spots down quickly. Then I cheat and run it through my 734. As far as users the first one you might want to pick up is a 5. Often called the best all around plane for usefulness. ebay is littered with 5's if you are patient you will find one for a good price. This is just my opinion. I don't think this is going to run you as much as your trains did....:icon_smile:......have fun, here is a picture of a #5 I got off ebay for $4.00.

 

[Sleeper]

When I started with planes ( fairly recently ) I didn't have any sort of plan. Even though they are cheap on ebay I soon realized I couldn't get them all. So I narrowed it to Stanley's and further narrowed it to Stanley bench planes. Then I decided that I would get even more picky and narrowed it to Stanley bench planes with keyhole caps. (pre 1933) I use sawmill lumber when I can and so I also have a #40 scrub plane that takes the cupped edges and high spots down quickly. Then I cheat and run it through my 734. As far as users the first one you might want to pick up is a 5. Often called the best all around plane for usefulness. ebay is littered with 5's if you are patient you will find one for a good price. This is just my opinion. I don't think this is going to run you as much as your trains did....:icon_smile:......have fun, here is a picture of a #5 I got off ebay for $4.00.

OMG, are you kidding me, I just can't believe it. That is beautiful.

 

[Dave Paine]

A good number of hand plane restorations on the forum.

These two are perhaps my best examples of before and after.

I purchased both from a local flea market for not much money.

Stanley No. 5
Before.

After. I stripped and repainted, but the original knob and tote.

A Sargent 408, equivalent to a Stanley No. 3.

Before.

After. In this case original paint, but I replaced the knob and the tote.

I still have these planes. Hard to let these go.

If you are interested in the restoration, this was the thread.

http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f11/latest-rust-bucket-planes-46494/

 

[timetestedtools]

here are some before and after
https://timetestedtools.wordpress.com/some-before-and-after-pictures/
https://timetestedtools.wordpress.com/some-before-and-after-pictures-my-restores-page-2/
https://timetestedtools.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/page-3-some-before-and-after-pictures-my-restores/