Hand Planes 101

[Kathy Marshall]

My lathe has been down so I've had some time to do a little cleanup in the shop. While I was cleaning up around some cabinets, I remembered I had a bunch of planes stored there and I thought it might be a good time to get them out and find out just what I had. These, along with almost everything else in the shop, were inherited from my dad. I mostly just do turning, but plan on doing some flatwork in the future when I get a real shop built.
I know very little about hand planes, so I'd like to see if you can tell me what I have and what each is used for. I'd also like to know if any of them are "good" ones that I should think about cleaning up and storing in the house. They are all dirty, but it's mostly just dust from sitting around for the past 12 years. For the pics, I just gave them a quick wipe so I could read whatever might be on them.
This will take several posts as I think I counted 24 planes and I think there are a few duplicates.

So here goes, with whatever I found stamped on them and measurements of the base, and in no particular order:

251926
(1) Millers Falls No 67 USA 8 1/2 x4

251923251924251925
(2) Looks like: Joh Weiss & Sohn Gegrowdet 1820 8 x 2 1/2


251928251929
(3) Sandusky tools (stamped on the blade, nothing on the body) 7 3/4 x 2 1/2

251922
(4) Buck Bros (stamped on blade, nothing on body) 16 3/4 x 2 1/4

251927
(5) No 12 6 x 3 5/8

[Mel Miller]

The plane with the Buck Bros. blade: Is it rosewood? Look carefully on the toe for makers' stamp, they can be small, faint, or close to the top edge. It could be the most valuable of the lot.

Mel

[Kathy Marshall]

251936251937
(6) Stanley No 78 USA

251931251932
(7) FG Pearson & Co Acute Sheffield (on blade, nothing on body) 17 x 2 3/4

251933
(8) Lie Nielsen No 1 5 1/4 x 1 1/2

251930
(9) Bailey - Stanley No 5 G12 005 Made in England 14 x 2 1/2

251934
(10) Lie Nielsen No 4 1/2 USA 10 x 2 3/4

251935
(11) Lie Nielsen No 40 1/2 USA 10 x 1 7/8

[Chris Griggs]

I'd also like to know if any of them are "good" ones that I should think about cleaning up and storing in the house.

Oh my! Ummmmmmm, all or at least most are good to excellent planes. The lie-nielsens of course are very good, but so far I'd say that everything you've got there is at a minimum a good useable tool.

Its my bed time, I'll let others comment further, but please, bring every one of those into the house this very instant. You have hundreds of dollars worth of very nice usable planes there.

Congratulations and all the best. You will have many replies to this thread.

[Kathy Marshall]

251941
(12) Bailey - Stanley No 5 USA 14 x 2 1/2

251944
(13) Veritas 4 1/2 Canada

251943251942
(14) Record No 7 England 22 x 2 7/8

251939251938
(15) Bailey - Stanley No 6 G12 006 England 18 x 3

251940
(16) Bailey - Stanley No 5 G12 005 England

251945
(17) Bailey - Stanley No 4 G12 004 England 9 1/2 x 2 1/2

[Kathy Marshall]

251953
(18) Stanley 6 1/2 x 2

251952
(19) Stanley No 80 2 1/2 x 3 1/4

251954
(20) Veritas 6 1/2 x 2

251950
(21) Can't find any brand stamped No 60 1/2 6 x 1 3/4

251949
(22 & 23) Black one just says M151, Blue one is Record A151

251951
(24) 90 can't find any other marks 4 1/2 x 1

Thanks for the help!

[Kathy Marshall]

The plane with the Buck Bros. blade: Is it rosewood? Look carefully on the toe for makers' stamp, they can be small, faint, or close to the top edge. It could be the most valuable of the lot.

Mel
I'll take a closer look tomorrow, not sure I'll be able to tell if it's rosewood or not. I'm assuming the toe is the front. I'll try to clean it up and get a better pic.

[Shawn Pixley]

They all look worthy of bringing into the house and cleaning up at a minimum. I would have relished being given such a nice start. The only exception might be #24, the bullnosed plane. Clean and start sharpening. Have fun!

[Gary Hodgin]

You've got a bunch of real good planes. I can't say much about the woodies but the Lie-Nielsens and the Veritas 4.5 are fantastic planes and have tremendous resale value if you're not going use them. You definitely don't want them to get banged up or rust.

[Jim Koepke]

There is only 1 among the whole group that raised any questions for me. The Millers Falls router plane (1) seems to have a bronze color to it. That could from the lighting or if it was painted at one time. It could also be from being a cast copy. Pattern makers often made cast copies of their tools for fun. How does the sole, bottom side, look?

Any of the others would make just about any plane user happy.

If you check inside the Sticky: Neanderthal wisdom/FAQs at the top of the Neanderthal Haven conference there are a few posts on the use and care of old planes with links for more information.

For help with understanding the numbering system used on most of the metallic planes try:

http://www.supertool.com/

This will take you to the home page.

Click on the link to Patrick's B & G (blood & gore). Read the terms of use, about two sentences and then if you like, read his story or go to the bottom of the page and you will find the links to the various planes by number. In the specifications he lists the length of the plane and the width of the blade instead of the width of the plane body.

The Millers Falls #67 is the equivalent to the Stanley #71 shown here:

http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan10.htm

(18) & (21) look like Stanley #60 (-1/2) planes. The maroon model is from the 1950s if my memory is working and the black one is similar to an English made Stanley of mine from the 1980s. The blades may be stamped.

(2), (5) & (19) all appear to be scrapers. They work a little different than planes, but once you learn to "turn a burr" on the blades they are a very useful tool at times.

Plane (3) looks like what is commonly called a "coffin smoother" due to the shape, not purpose. Though they likely also smoothed coffins in their time. My only caveat on this is about the shape of the bottom. They often have a rounded bottom. If this is the case, then it is a compass plane often used in making chair seats.

My mixing of planes with turning is usually when making acorn knobs. An acorn is turned and then one side is planed flat to attach to a door or drawer.

(24) is a type of shoulder plane. They can be useful at times, but a bit harder to use than a shoulder plane with a longer front end. It should also have a stamp on the blade. It can also be used as a chisel plane with the top taken off. Under the top near the toe is a small screw that can be set to allow resetting the top to the same position when it is put back in place. Be careful with it as it sometimes gets stuck due to oxidation. If it doesn't turn easily, give it a shot of penetrating oil like WD-40. There are other oils that work better than WD-40. If it is stuck, mention it and you will get plenty of suggestions as to what can be tried to free it up.

It appears each one is well worth taking care of by all means.

jtk

[Kees Heiden]

Wow, that is quite a collection!

The Weiss plane is from Austria, Vienna. It looks to be a toothing plane. But the blade is missing? There should be a blade with a serated edge, with grooves cut into the face of the blade. The English tooting planes used to have the blade standing almost straight up. This one is leaning back a bit, it can be used to rough out wood with a tendency to tearout.

There is a lof of info about Weiss on this website, even a catalogue scan. It's German but maybe you can run google translator: http://www.holzwerken.de/museum/hersteller/weiss.phtml

[Adam Petersen]

Your father had excellent taste in tools. If you plan on keeping them you have a wonderful and full collection of great handplanes. If you plan on selling them, you'll make a good amount of money (at least a good amount to me) from them. The resale on the Veritas and LieNielsens is nearly the new price. There was a handsaw that just sold on ebay for $81 from Veritas that was a seconds tool. That's like 20-30 more than the new price. People get wierd on ebay.

That all being said, if it were me and they were my father's old tools, you couldn't pay me enough to sell them. Definitely protect them though. If you don't plan to use them a well built tool chest, some Boeshield T9 and some dessicant in the box would be a good way to store them and protect them.

[Kathy Marshall]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I won't be selling any of them, so I guess I've got a lot of work ahead of me starting with a bunch of reading on how to clean and sharpen!


The plane with the Buck Bros. blade: Is it rosewood? Look carefully on the toe for makers' stamp, they can be small, faint, or close to the top edge. It could be the most valuable of the lot.

Mel
I took another look at it today and couldn't find any stamp or other mark. Also couldn't tell if it's rosewood, it looks very fine grained but I'd have to sand it back to really get a good look at the grain. I tried to take out the blade to get a better look at it, but the blade and the wedge? weren't budging, so I'll just leave it for now. I felt the edge of the blade and it felt pretty dang sharp.


They all look worthy of bringing into the house and cleaning up at a minimum. I would have relished being given such a nice start. The only exception might be #24, the bullnosed plane. Clean and start sharpening. Have fun!
I thought that most of them might be some good ones, my dad wasn't know for buying cheap tools (or cheap anything for that matter). When it was time to distribute dad's estate, my sisters all went with cash and a few mementos, I chose the entire contents of his shop and a few of his guns (he was a competitive shooter and collector). My sisters are now left with just the mementos, but I have great memories every time I step in the shop.


There is only 1 among the whole group that raised any questions for me. The Millers Falls router plane (1) seems to have a bronze color to it. That could from the lighting or if it was painted at one time. It could also be from being a cast copy. Pattern makers often made cast copies of their tools for fun. How does the sole, bottom side, look?

Any of the others would make just about any plane user happy.

If you check inside the Sticky: Neanderthal wisdom/FAQs at the top of the Neanderthal Haven conference there are a few posts on the use and care of old planes with links for more information.

For help with understanding the numbering system used on most of the metallic planes try:

http://www.supertool.com/

This will take you to the home page.

Click on the link to Patrick's B & G (blood & gore). Read the terms of use, about two sentences and then if you like, read his story or go to the bottom of the page and you will find the links to the various planes by number. In the specifications he lists the length of the plane and the width of the blade instead of the width of the plane body.

The Millers Falls #67 is the equivalent to the Stanley #71 shown here:

http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan10.htm

(18) & (21) look like Stanley #60 (-1/2) planes. The maroon model is from the 1950s if my memory is working and the black one is similar to an English made Stanley of mine from the 1980s. The blades may be stamped.

(2), (5) & (19) all appear to be scrapers. They work a little different than planes, but once you learn to "turn a burr" on the blades they are a very useful tool at times.

Plane (3) looks like what is commonly called a "coffin smoother" due to the shape, not purpose. Though they likely also smoothed coffins in their time. My only caveat on this is about the shape of the bottom. They often have a rounded bottom. If this is the case, then it is a compass plane often used in making chair seats.

My mixing of planes with turning is usually when making acorn knobs. An acorn is turned and then one side is planed flat to attach to a door or drawer.

(24) is a type of shoulder plane. They can be useful at times, but a bit harder to use than a shoulder plane with a longer front end. It should also have a stamp on the blade. It can also be used as a chisel plane with the top taken off. Under the top near the toe is a small screw that can be set to allow resetting the top to the same position when it is put back in place. Be careful with it as it sometimes gets stuck due to oxidation. If it doesn't turn easily, give it a shot of penetrating oil like WD-40. There are other oils that work better than WD-40. If it is stuck, mention it and you will get plenty of suggestions as to what can be tried to free it up.

It appears each one is well worth taking care of by all means.

jtk
Thanks Jim! Lots of good info there. I forgot to look at the Millers Falls router plane, but I'll take a better look tomorrow. I think I've got alot of studying up to do before I start breaking them down and cleaning them up.


Wow, that is quite a collection!

The Weiss plane is from Austria, Vienna. It looks to be a toothing plane. But the blade is missing? There should be a blade with a serated edge, with grooves cut into the face of the blade. The English tooting planes used to have the blade standing almost straight up. This one is leaning back a bit, it can be used to rough out wood with a tendency to tearout.

There is a lof of info about Weiss on this website, even a catalogue scan. It's German but maybe you can run google translator: http://www.holzwerken.de/museum/hersteller/weiss.phtml
Thanks Kees, Yes, the blade is missing or at least it's not in the plane, it may be in one of the boxes of odds and end. If not, I may look into trying to find a replacement blade.

Your father had excellent taste in tools. If you plan on keeping them you have a wonderful and full collection of great handplanes. If you plan on selling them, you'll make a good amount of money (at least a good amount to me) from them. The resale on the Veritas and LieNielsens is nearly the new price. There was a handsaw that just sold on ebay for $81 from Veritas that was a seconds tool. That's like 20-30 more than the new price. People get wierd on ebay.

That all being said, if it were me and they were my father's old tools, you couldn't pay me enough to sell them. Definitely protect them though. If you don't plan to use them a well built tool chest, some Boeshield T9 and some dessicant in the box would be a good way to store them and protect them.
Thanks Adam, I'm not planning on selling any. They're far more valuable to me for sentimental reasons, now I just hope I can learn to use them as I get them cleaned up.

[Sam Murdoch]

Wow, good for you. Nicely done Dad and good choice Kathy on leaving the "cash and a few mementos" behind. Makes me wonder about where my tools will end up...

[Jim Koepke]

I tried to take out the blade to get a better look at it, but the blade and the wedge? weren't budging, so I'll just leave it for now. I felt the edge of the blade and it felt pretty dang sharp.

Not being sure about the razee (sp?) design the blade removal method might be different than a full ended plane. Often to loosen a blade a wrap with a mallet on the heal of the plane will do the job. It may take more than a single deliberate sharp blow.

Another way is to see if the blade is tapered. If it is, it may be easier to tap it through the plane and out the bottom.

It is possible that somewhere along the line someone coated the plane with oil or varnish that caused some wood swelling and has trapped the blade. The best way to release it may follow if others chime in.


I think I've got alot of studying up to do before I start breaking them down and cleaning them up.

There is a lot of good information here in the Sticky: Neanderthal wisdom/FAQs.

Using a lathe has probably given you a start on sharpening skills for your blades.

Read a little and then pick up one of the easy planes to start with like the Stanley #4 or #5 and give it a test drive. A nice shaving and a smooth surface can do a lot to dispel the mystery.

jtk