Stanley Bailey #7 Made in England plane

[Jim Koepke]

Tom makes some great points.

For me every plane purchase was a balance of the price tag, how much the seller might budge, how much work and/or cost of parts were going to go into putting it in good working order.

A few times this thought process also considered the value of the individual parts if they had to be sold separately to make back my money if the plane was a junker.

Turning a sow's ear into a silk purse may not always be possible, but sometimes you can come close or put a good deal of cash back into your purse.

One of my experiences with this was a #5 plane that looked like a piece of junk on ebay. I wanted it for the low style knob and tote. Turned out the pictures were terrible and the plane was actually a pretty good buy for less than a blade set was getting on ebay at the time (less than $17 iirc). That plane is still in my shop and is one of my go to jack planes.

jtk

[Brian Deakin]

I live in the Uk
A number of years ago I attended a 4 day David Charlesworth sharpening and plane tuning course at his workshop in Hartland
I took an old Woden plane to tune and after tuning was able to make long shavings which were very thin
If you use Davids method to prepare a plane and replace the blade with a Hock blade you can have the satisfaction of having a tool to be proud
I would suggest if possible to identify an example of a plane which has the least play in the depth adjuster wheel

[Jim Koepke]

I would suggest if possible to identify an example of a plane which has the least play in the depth adjuster wheel

With the Bailey style adjuster that would be a Lie-Nielsen. Being so used to the depth adjuster backlash, play or sloppiness, makes using a plane without any a bit awkward. My plane with the most backlash is maybe three turns on the adjuster.

jtk