Antique & Collectible STANLEY TOOLS Guide to Identity and Value" BOOK Third edition

[lawrence munninghoff]

I went on John Walters website and he is coming out with a new Stanley tool guide, third edition. His website says in January of 2020. Older editions of his book are commanding some pretty hefty prices on Amazon.

[Richard Coers]

It'll be curious how much lower the prices will be in the new book. Collectables took a huge drop in 2008, and a lot of old collectors have died since then as well. I bet some tools will be at least 30% less. What's your experience?

[Bob Jones 5443]

I like The Stanley Plane: A History and Descriptive Inventory by Alvin Sellens. I found a 1975 first edition in a used book shop in Annapolis last summer. There's no ISBN that I can see(!) I paid the shopkeeper fifty bucks because I was so psyched to find it, and I wanted to support independent booksellers. You can (as I write this) get it here for $20:

https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/stanley-plane-history-descriptive-inventory/author/alvin-sellens/

It describes –– to varying degrees of detail –– all the Stanley planes from No. 1 through No. 608C, and also includes Defiance, aluminum, gage, Handyman, steel, later "household", and Made in England planes, including bench, block, and combination planes. It does not have all the Stanley products that seem to be addressed in the Walters book you mentioned. For example, no spokeshaves. But it's fun to leaf through, and it featured my No. 71 router plane in context with others like it, and it demystified combination planes for me.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

It'll be curious how much lower the prices will be in the new book. Collectables took a huge drop in 2008, and a lot of old collectors have died since then as well. I bet some tools will be at least 30% less. What's your experience?

Way more decrease than that I bet. Users have more new tool options now to, which hurt the old tool market. ,

[Stephen Rosenthal]

A “coming soon” note (with Kindle and ebook options) has been on the website for the better part of 3+ years. I’ll believe it when I see it.

[Pete Taran]

I'm with Stephen. I used to see him all the time at tool meets but haven't seen him in years. I heard he completely lost interest in old tools.