The Curious Multi-Era Frankenjack

[Bernadette Semilla]

I picked up a few tools from someone at a local auto shop the other day. He didn't know anything about woodworking but they came with the building the shop takes up now and he didn't want them to go to the dump; bless his heart. Anyways, one of the things I got was what seemed to be a regular old jack plane but when I took it apart at home, I just got more confused as saw the castings and looked up dating information!

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With the H shaped frog seat and no castings other than the MADE IN USA, it seems to be a Type 1 or 2- but the knob doesn't have the distinctive balloon shape or bead and both it and the tote are painted black, though seem to be rosewood. The frog seems to be from another Type due to the lateral adjustment lever with STANLEY but no patent dates, no forward/back adjusting screw, and a brass depth adjuster with no stampings. Plus there's the matter of there being no rib between the screws and the recessed, japanned areas. This all suggests to me Type 7 or 9 as the Type 8s had a patent date on the lateral lever and the forward/back adjustment screw was introduced with the Type 10 but the photos from the Rexmill.com type study shows no frogs matching mine! At least the blade and lever cap are easy to place; a Canadian made Sweetheart as per the stamp and Type 16 judging from the patent date on the back, orange paint, and kidney shaped hole.

So this gives us:
Body: 1867-72
Frog: 1893-99, 1902-1907
Blade: 1919-32
Lever Cap: 1933-41
Knob and Tote: ???

I got a real kick out of this all and hope you guys do too. Though if you all could elucidate anything I'd sure appreciate it!

[David Weaver]

If I had to guess, I'd say type 19 or 20. It's definitely very new as far as made in the US stanleys go.

Don't know anything about the frog style, as I"ve never seen it before, but it has a good clean tote and knob, and if the frog mates up square, it should be a decent user.

You might want to clean the japanning off of the machined area below the frog though (on the left side of the "H"). Paint is extremely slick, even under pressure (or maybe I should say especially once it's been burnished under pressure), and the frog may move.

[Jim Koepke]

+1 on what David said.

At first my thought was that could be a Sargent frog. I have seen that style frog before, just not with a Stanley lateral lever.

jtk

[Bill Houghton]

I think you called it: frankenplane, made from bits from different periods. The frog looks very early, if it's a Stanley. The lateral adjuster sure looks Stanley.