Transitional Stanley's

[Peter Scoma]

Curious to know other's opinions on transitional stanley's as user's. I've acquired a full set of metallic stanley's with the exception of a 1 and 2 and essentially need a new thing to collect :D

Seriously though, they are priced pretty cheap compared to metallic Bailey's and im wondering how they perform.
Thanks
PS

[Jim Koepke]

Some folks prefer them to the metallic planes. They have a different feel on the wood being worked.

Instead of going to transitionals, why not start acquiring block planes and specialty planes? Rabbet planes always come in handy. Then of course, if you are making rabbets and dados, you will likely want a set of side rabbet planes.

jim

[Robert Rozaieski]

Transitionals, in my opinion, are very under-rated tools. My first long jointer (I mean longer than a #7) was a transitional and it was spectacular at it's job, which was as a dedicated edge jointer with a straight ground iron. Other than finding (or building) an old wooden plane in good shape (not easy to do when you want a long plane), there is no other way to get a jointer longer than a #8 size (24"). The beauty of transitionals is that many models used the same metal parts with the only difference being the length of the wooden sole. This means that you can make a replacement wooden sole as long as you want. I believe Stanley made them up to 30" long. I prefer wooden planes now and I sold my transitional after finding a 30" long wooden jointer in really good shape but I still think they are great planes and a very inexpensive way to put together a good set of user bench planes for someone just starting out on a tight budget.

[Pat Zabrocki]

I like the way they look and feel. they are also fun projects, to me anyway.

Cut some finger joints on the bottom of the plane and an oversized piece of something nice (like ebony). Make the finger joints at a 45 degree angle and your set for a cool effect. I didn't actually cut these joints. I got from a guy that had already cut them but didn't want to finish restoring the plane. Basically, I just wanted to see what he did. I've got some trashed 35 and 24, 23, and 22 planes that I'd like to either resole this way or simply make the entire body. should be fun.
cheers
Pat

[harry strasil]

except for specailty planes, my user planes are Transitional, for demos I use Woodies. I love my transitionals.