I need a block plane history lesson...

[Matt Ranum]

Well sort of anyway. I'm blessed and cursed :p at the same time. My wife has a cousin that knows I have an affinity for old hand tools and every once and a while my wife comes home with a bag of hand planes. Usually its stuff like Defiance or other off brand cheaper home owner planes. Most have been pretty rough and they get set a side for parts etc. Today though she came home with a few that are pretty decent shape and a couple nice old blocks.

The first is a Stanley 220 with an 1897 patent date. I guess I didn't realize that plane dated back that far, or do I have a franken-plane? The iron in it has been made to fit but everything else seems nice.

Second is a Fulton. I don't think I ever heard of that one before. It looks like a similar vintage to the 220. It has a cam adjuster in the back instead of the screw adjuster. Anyone have any info on it?

[Bill Houghton]

Patrick Leach's Blood and Gore tour of Stanley planes says the 220 was produced from 1898 to 1973 (the main page for Blood and Gore is http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan0.htm; he's pretty opinionated about some planes, but it's generally a useful guide); so the 1897 patent date makes sense. The 220 is a nice utility plane. It's always described as a "standard angle" block plane, but the iron actually beds a little higher than 20 degrees, so it's a high angle plane. Sort of. Yours is an older model - you can tell by the neat adjusting knob. If the blade is 1-5/8" wide, you should find that any vintage Stanley blade or aftermarket blade made for vintage Stanleys will fit (note that more recent Stanley planes use a different plane iron; the width of the slot is the clearest indicator of old vs. new). If yours is one of the very early models, with the 1-3/4" blade, and you find you need a replacement blade, you can probably get one from one of the small makers, like Ron Hock.

Fulton was a name used by Sears prior to the introduction of the Craftsman name (which was, I believe, in 1927), and later for a second-class line of tools. The later Fulton tools do not, generally speaking, cause tool users to walk over hot coals to get one. That odd little lever adjuster looks like one that Stanley used, although the lever cap looks more like a Sargent design. At any rate, it was almost certainly made by one of the major makers for Sears (I'd think either Stanley or Sargent, but I could not be mistaken for any kind of expert even in the fog on a dark night). Let me just suggest that you devote your cleanup efforts to the Stanley first.

[Matt Ranum]

Thanks Bill much appreciated. On the 220, the mouth opening is 1-11/16" wide so the iron would be 1-5/8". I do have a newer 12-220 that I use fairly regularly, hopefully this one will as good or better. If nothing else it will fit in nice with the rest of my users(type 9s).

The adjuster on the Fulton reminds me of the one on my Liberty Bell. It seems to be built every bit as well as the Stanley. With some of my other cheap line of planes, they just look cheap.

I am putting together a set of planes for my FIL and maybe he will get this Fulton too. He gave me a couple Defiance planes that were pretty tough that belonged to his Dad. He felt I should have them since we do most of our collective work in my shop. Little does he know that those planes have now been rehabbed and will end up in his possession where they belong on his birthday in a couple months.;) Wish I would have taken some "before pics" of them, they look pretty nice now. Just have to lap the soles and sharpen them and they are ready for work.