Grant Plane?

[Nick Cook]

Picked this plane up today for pretty cheap. I'm still new to the hand tool game but this one looked like a decent knock off to a Stanley. I googled it and didn't really come up with anything, was hoping someone here will be able to chime in on the vintage and whether or not it's a decent plane.

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[Tom Muellner]

That's a pretty standard design used by Stanley & others. The controlling factors as to whether it's a decent plane probably lies more in the machining & tolerances than anything else. That's hard to tell from the pics. Could be as early as the early 1900's. Sometimes there's dates on castings to verify that. Looks to be a #4 size. (about 9" to 10" long) which is probably the most common size. Many woodworking publications, or the web (or here, no doubt...I'm pretty new to posting here & haven't browsed the site much) will have tips on tuning the plane for optimal function.

The blade looks to nearly full length, so it should give you lots of shavings.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Seems a little narrower than a 4 to me - maybe a number 3 size? but maybe I'm just imagining that.

As Tom said, if the machining is nice and things mate well, it's apt to turn out to be decent. Any pictures of the bedding surface for the iron, or the way the frog mates to the body? I usually use that as a better indicator of quality.

The rear handle seems to be a little better shaped than the crude bandsaw-and-a-router-bit you see on more "budget" plane lines, so that's a good sign. Of course, it could just be hard for me to tell in the photo.

As for who made it, Walt has a nice little guide up at Brass City Records (http://www.brasscityrecords.com/toolworks/graphics/plane%20id.html) showing the designs of the adjustment lever, which can be a helpful pointer in the right direction.

Hard to tell from your photo which it's got.

The other thing, of course - does it only say "Grant" on the blade as you showed a photo of? Does it say anything else anywhere else on the plane? The blade could simply be a replacement from some point in the planes life.

[Nick Cook]

The plane is 9 1/4" x 2 1/8", I took it apart and there are some other casting marks, not sure how much help they will be. There is a C72 under the frog, a C55 on the frog and a 115 on the lever cap. Judging off the Brass City link, it could be a Sargent, but my adjustment lever is more of a V than a tight U. Anyway, here is some more pictures if that helps. Going to try to get it cleaned up and sharpened and see how it works.

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[Greg Wease]

Stanley made planes in this configuration for themselves under the Defiance brand and for other sellers under their house brand. They had the wider "V" shaped laterals and no spring on the lever cap. Their casting marks usually included the "C" you find on yours.

[Bill Houghton]

One of the features of the Stanley Bailey line planes, missing on yours, is a piece of flat, thin spring steel under the cam on the lever cap (in case you're still learning terminology, this is the casting with the lever on it that holds the iron in place). This piece allows for smoother action by the cam and keeps it from digging into the chipbreaker (cap iron...different people use different terms for this piece). These can be added: get a piece of feeler gauge stock, punch a hole in it, then rivet it to the lever cap. I can probably dig up a piece of feeler gauge stock; send me a private message if my sending you one will help move this restoration forward.

[Nick Cook]

Thanks everyone for helping identify this plane.

Bill, I'll send you a PM!

-Nick

[Joshua Byrd]

Another very easy thing you can do is to file, scrape or curse away the paint that is covering the vital contact points on both the frog and the plane body. On second thought, the cursing hasn't gotten me very far in the past, but it has kept me from throwing planes across the garage.

[Rev. Michael Gunnells Logan WV]

I have this same plane has anyone found out what name brand it is

[steven c newman]

Stanley Defiance, post WW2 era. In 1962 Stanley crimped the lateral lever down from the "whale tail" shape to the "U" shape.

Good luck getting below the red colouring in the handles....it goes all the way through.

I used a cup wire brush in the drill press, to take the painted seats down to bare metal.

Brand was replaced by the Infamous Handyman line of planes....

Brand was also painted gray, with a red frog, and branded as a Victor.