Bailey planes

[Harry Goodwin]

Just a question that some of you can answer in a flash. I am more interested in my planes than ever thanks to this site. Also two LN's acquired.
I have two planes from my grandfather that are Bailey #6 and #5. They have Bailey's name on the sole but Stanley on the blade and I guess on what I think is the cap. (has lever) Are these true baileys or are they modified by grandad with newer Stanleys. He had a bunch of parts I have kept but I wondered about the Baileys. Thanks for so much good information. Harry

[Dan Forman]

Harry---Sounds like you have a couple of Stanley Bailey planes. If you want to find out about when they were made, get them out and look up this site. http://www.tooltrip.com/tooltrip8/stanley/stan-bpl/bailey-types.htm.

There is a world of info on planes and other handtools on this site as well. http://www.rexmill.com/

Have fun.

Dan

[Harry Goodwin]

Dan: I knew you would come through. I will check out the site as I have a couple of other planes that are probably a generation before the Baleys. I have two old planes without names and two jointer ,woodies ,one nice and usable and one??? I better watch this interesgt it may cause the LN stable to grow. Thanks for your skill and the sites. Harry

[Hank Knight]

I have two planes from my grandfather that are Bailey #6 and #5. They have Bailey's name on the sole but Stanley on the blade and I guess on what I think is the cap. (has lever) Are these true baileys or are they modified by grandad with newer Stanleys. Harry

Harry, they would be "true Bailey's." A guy named Leonard Bailey designed what we now know as the Bailey style bench plane in the latter part of the 19th Century. If I recall correctly, he patented the design and Stanley either bought the patent or Bailey licensed it to Stanley. In any case, most of the bench planes Stanely produced thereafter up to today are Bailey style planes. Stanley made another style bench plane called the "Bedrock" up until the 1940s. It had a different frog configuration from the Bailey plane and was marketed as Stanley's top-of-the-line banch plane. They were not produced in the volume the Baileys were, and they are now sought after by collectors and users alike as something special. There's a lot of discussion about whether Bedrocks technically perform better than Baileys, but there are a lot of very satisfied Bailey users out there that stand by their Bailey planes. I have both and I can't really tell much difference, except that the Bedrocks cost me more to start with. Baileys that were made during the time your grandfather probably acquired his are very good planes, much better, in my opinion, than the Stanleys made today. You probably have two very nice planes on your hands.
If you want more information, I'll refer you to "Stanley Blood and Gore" a web site that has everything you ever wanted to know about Stanley planes - and more - maintained by a guy named Patrick Leach. He's one of the acknowledged experts on Stanley planes and his web site has LOTS of info. Here's his web address:
http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan1.htm
Hope this helps.

[Harry Goodwin]

Hank and Dan thanks again for that information. I greatly appreciate it and will do some investigation into all those old planes. Harry