Stanley #45 type 13 - 15

[Brian Akers]

Picked this Stanley #45 up today. It's a complete set and looks to be a type 13-15. Anyway to tell which type? Came in an original box but I don't think it's original to this one. Has all the blades and boxes and various parts. Prices on ebay widely vary on these... any thoughts?
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[Stew Denton]

Brian,

A couple of thoughts. Do a search for "blood and gore Stanley Planes" to get to Patrick's Superior Works site on Stanley Planes, and then go to the section on Planes 45 and 45A. They have a listing of the dates when Stanley first added new types of cutters to the ones that came standard with the plane. It doesn't probably go forward, Date Wise, as much as you need, but it is a start. Also, read the descriptions, because in that he does mention when a limited number of changes were made to the design of the plane, so you can narrow it down a little that way.

Secondly, look in your manual that came with the plane. My plane has the original manual, and the manual has a date in it that is the date the manual was printed. That will help you get a pretty good date on when your plane was made. That will help with later determining the type.

Next do a search for "type study" and "Stanley Plane" or "Stanley 45." There are one or two that show up, if I recall, or at least they did when I was trying to find out what year my #45 was made. You can look at the pictures, and see when they changed the type of scroll work, etc., that is on the parts of the plane and thus also help date the plane.

What I found when I was trying to date and type mine, is that there is less information out there on the 45 than is available on the Bailey and Bed Rock bench planes.

I just looked at the photo of the manual that you posted above, and you probably have already noticed that it is dated 4/10/24. "Tooltrip.com" lists the date of 1915 to 1960 as type 12 to type 17. "Oldtooluser.com" lists a little about dates and types, but read the text to find a little bit on the planes, and also states that Dave Heckel will be writing (maybe by now has written and published it) about the 45.

In short I have not found a perfect site that sorts all things out, but if you look at enough of them you begin to get the range narrowed down.

Stew

[Jim Koepke]

The difference between types 13, 14 & 15 is the logo. From the image of the skate it looks like that is a type 14 logo, 1922 only. The logo on the blade box is also like the type 14 logo. The A & N in Stanley are smaller than the other letters due to the top of the heart pushing on them.

The type 15 logo has all the letters in STANLEY the same size with the heart more even with the bottom of the notched box.

jtk

[Brian Akers]

Thanks guys! Paid $65 for it so I feel like I did alright

[Patrick Chase]

Thanks guys! Paid $65 for it so I feel like I did alright

Wow, you did very well indeed assuming everything is in reasonable condition.

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks guys! Paid $65 for it so I feel like I did alright

That is a very good price for a plane that looks to have the most commonly missing parts; the slitting blade, the fence lock bolt and the cam rest.

jtk