# Hand plane "lot" purchase finale, the others



## Dave Paine (May 30, 2012)

I posted the #7 separate since I make the new tote and knob.

Posting these for the folks who like to see the end result of a cleanup/restoration. I have enjoyed the work, and the knowledge which it has provided for me.

Looking at these old pieces of iron makes me wonder about future generations and our increasingly electronic world where things become obsolescent in a very short time. I am not able to think about "vintage electronics". They may exist, but likely will not work.

I have an original 10MB Winchester hard drive. It is a brick. I do not have a computer which can run this. Very sad. I have stacks of 5in floppy discs, 3 1/4in floppy discs. Again no equipment which can use them.

How many of the cars today will be able to run in 50 years time when the electronic components fail? Sorry, got distracted, back to the planes.

The #3. New Veritas cap iron. The tote has the finished worn off on the back. The knob looks sad. This may be the next plane for new tote and knob.









The #4. New Veritas cap iron. For some reason this is my favourite of the group. I think the tote was replaced. Feels like plastic. The knob was wrong. Sat on top of the ring instead of inside. I turned it down to fit inside, then the screw is too long. I used a rubber O ring underneath so the knob did not swivel. Another candidate for replacement knob.









The #5. All original - at least I made no changes.









The #6. All original, again no changes by me.









I took test passes on the same 3/4in wide pine board. Straight grain. Wanted an easy first test. I felt if I could not plane this easiest of pine boards, I would not plane anything else.

I had sharpened all the blades the same, so I was expecting consistent performance. I got a bit of a surprise, which also added to my personal experience/knowledge. 

I think I experienced by first examples of chatter. I had read about this, but not experienced. Whatever this problem was, it resulted in a useless tool.

The #3 and #4 cut as expected the first time. The #4 felt a little smoother. Perhaps due to the bad sharpening on the #3 which I had to re-sharpen to get a decent, straight edge at 90 deg to the side of the blade.

The #5 was horrible. Tiny little bits of shavings, it left the pine with lines across the edge. I tried adjusting the depth, more depth and it did not cut, just bounced off the wood.

I had tried the #6 before and it cut. This time is was also not cutting well. I had partial cut on the pine, but lines across the edge either on the beginning or the end of the cut.

I dis-assembled the #5 cap iron and blade. I could see some particles of wood under the cap iron. I had lapped the back of the blade and also the front underside of the cap iron.

I exchanged the cap iron with the Veritas cap iron from the #4. It then cut - almost like the #4, but not quite as good.
I re-lapped the back of the blade and the front edge of the original cap iron. Success, I was now able to get shaving from end to end which left the pine nice and smooth.

I re-lapped the back of the blade on the #6 and the front edge of the cap iron. Also success.

I am now happy to have a fully functional set of Stanley's #3, #4, #5, #6 and #7C.

From the original "lot" I had two #5. I gave one to a friend. I also had what turned out to be a Stanley Defender. This was passed onto Danj who wanted to convert it to a scrub plane.

The last one in the lot is a Stanley Handyman. This has not been worked on. Since I have the others to compare, I can see where Stanley made the cost cutting moves for the Handyman line. If anyone wants a Stanley Handyman plane to restore and use, let me know.

Thanks for looking.


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## ACP (Jan 24, 2009)

Very nice planes. I really like how they turned out and they are all such good user types from Stanley. Don't you just love the Veritas blades and cap irons? Great steel for the price. I have their blades/caps in my #7 and #4. Such an improvement IMHO. Thanks for sharing and congrats on the good buys.


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## Dave Paine (May 30, 2012)

ACP said:


> Don't you just love the Veritas blades and cap irons? Great steel for the price. I have their blades/caps in my #7 and #4. Such an improvement IMHO.


I do love the Veritas steel. I can see replacing over time. I had to limit myself on this purchase. Too many other tool related expenditures.

The thicker Veritas cap irons with the flat and sharp edge do make better contact with the blade and make a big improvement to performance.

The next phase is to start making replacement knobs and totes for the bad ones. The old iron deserves to be dressed up. :smile:


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