February Guild Meeting Featured Brent Richardson
By Roger Moister
Guild member Brent Richardson presented the February program on Stanley bench planes. He touched on the history of the company, tips for restoration and comments on usage. To aid his talk, Brent brought a large collection of his planes.
The Stanley Tool Company was founded in New Britain, Connecticut in 1843. It got into bench planes shortly after 1869 when it acquired the patent rights for the cammed lever cap iron from Leonard Bailey. The Bailey bench plane become much more efficient than other planes and sales soared for Stanley through the rest of the century. By 1920, Stanley had bought out all its bench plane competitors and controlled the market.
In 1902 E. A. Schade developed the Bedrock bench plane design which is recognized by the flat, straight line portion at the top of each side of the body. The notable features of the Bedrock plane were that the fog and blade could be moved together making adjustment of the mouth much easier. Stanley bought out Schade and carried the Bedrock line until 1943. Later, the Bedrock design was taken up by Lie-Nielsen for its standard bench planes of today.
In 1922 Stanley started a new line of hand planes known as “Sweetheart” with a heart shaped logo on their blades. The Sweetheart line continued until 1934. About 10 years ago, Stanley brought back its Sweetheart line with improvements to make it a better plane.
During the years and after World War II, Stanley continued to sell planes based on the Bailey design, but overall excellence fell off due to a drop in steel quality and the growth of the power tool market which developed after the war. Brent opined that any Stanley bench plane made before 1942 was a solid tool.
When a collector is looking at a vintage plane, Brent said to determine its age and quality. This leads to determining the type of the plane which may be found from three sources: Hyperkitten.com, Supertool.com and Antique-used-tools.com. Additionally, Brent mentioned two books helpful to Stanley tool collectors: Stanley Tools - Guide to Identification and Value
by John Walton, and Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings
by Aldren Watson.
Brent discussed several steps for restoring a vintage plane. The first step is to assess its condition looking to see if the mouth is deformed, checking that all parts (blade, chip breaker, lever cap and frog knob) are present, determining if any rust is light or pitted, looking at the black japanning on the body, noting the condition of the tote and the knob and determining whether the sole is flat. This is followed by determining the type of plane from one of the referenced sources above.
The next step is to disassemble and clean the plane starting with soap and water. Remove any rust by soaking the plane in a solution of Evapo-Rust, vinegar or Coca Cola. Follow the soaking by brushing the metal with a brass or nylon bristle brush to remove the rust and then apply a light coat of camellia oil.
Following the cleaning, it may be necessary to flatten the sole, especially at the mouth as well as the heel and toe. Then flatten the frog and sole so they mate perfectly by using valve grinding compound or various grits of fine sand paper. Flatten the chip breaker so it mates perfectly on top of the blade so no daylight shows through and polish the hump of the chip breaker. Refine both sides of the mouth to a 45 degree angle without widening the mouth to enable easy escape of shavings over the polished hump of the chip breaker. Ease the edges of the sole slightly so as not to be sharp.
Brent shared references on the subject as follows: on the web: Restoring Hand Planes
(Jay Bates); You Tube, Restoring a Bench Planes
(Paul Sellers); Taunton Press, Rebuilding Vintage Hand Planes
(Roland Johnson); tote and knob patterns on the Lee Valley website, parts and miscellaneous screws at The Tool Fool on the web. Brent noted screws and threading on Stanley planes are proprietary, so don’t lose the screws as you work.
The final step is reassembling the plane. Make sure all screw holes are dry and blow them out with compressed air as needed. Brent recommended spacing the chip breaker behind the edge of the blade 1/32 inch for a smoother, 1/16 inch for a No. 6 or No. 5 and 3/32 inch for a jointer plane. Center the blade in the mouth by eye and even up blade protrusion by sighting down the sole against a white background. The cap iron needs to be firm against the chip breaker and blade. The cammed lever on the cap iron should make an audible snap sound when depressed. The frog knob should be advanced to remove any slack and be slightly firm.
In terms of usage, Brent briefly summarized that smoother planes are Nos. 2, 3, 4, 4 1/2. Jack planes are Nos. 5 and 5 1/2. Fore planes are No. 6 and used to rough mill a board, and jointer planes are Nos. 7 and 8 used to flatten the face of a board and get its edges 90 degrees to the faces of the board.
Brent stated that Mid-WestTool Collectors Association is the main organization for collectors and their network for contacts and tool meets. Brent proudly shared pictures of his full collection of planes - very impressive.
Thank you, Brent, for your hard work in preparation and your excellent and informative presentation.