Where can I find a rosewood tote and knob for a #3?

[David Tiell]

Yesterday I bought what appears to be a Type 15 Stanley #3 smoother. It's in very nice shape. With some minor cleaning, it may look almost brand new. I can't see any chips in the japanning, and the bottom looks perfect, with the exception of some surface rust. However, it looks liks someone has swapped out the tote and knob with something else. The tote looks to be some light colored wood stained a medium brown, and the front knob is too short for the screw. I've been looking for rosewood knobs and totes online, but nearly everything I've found says they fit a #4 through #7. I found one place that says their handles fit #3 through #7, but I didn't think the totes on the larger planes would fit the #3.

Can anybody point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Dave

[Mike K Wenzloff]

Make them?

Seriously. It's not a difficult job, maybe a bit fussy on the rear tote, but easily enough accomplished.

A purchase option for original--or close to the same period--would be:

Pete Niederberger
Box 887
Larkspur CA 94977

415 924-8403 aft 6pm
pniederber@aol.com

Take care, Mike

[Clint Jones]

Plane totes from no.'s 3, 4, 5 1/4 and 10 1/2 are interchangeable. Plane totes from no.'s 4 1/2, 5, 5 1/2, 6, 7, 8, and 10 are interchangeable.

[David Martino]

If you're still looking, you could try Walt at Brass City. Sells a lot of Stanley planes and I believe has a good supply of original parts. Nice guy and willing to answer questions too:

http://www.brasscityrecords.com/51.html

[Clint Jones]

Here is the best price for a rosewood tote and knob
http://www.thebestthings.com/newtools/bailey_totes.htm
I have bought some and they are nice looking. The cheaper slight seconds usually have sapwood or light scratches and you can snag them up for a deal.
Also ebay seller dongdroz makes beautiful cocobolo replacements. They are a bit pricey but are very well made and are just about as close to original shape and form as you can get.

[Bob Smalser]

Here is the best price for a rosewood tote and knob
http://www.thebestthings.com/newtools/bailey_totes.htm
I have bought some and they are nice looking.

Ditto. $16.95 instead of Highland's 22 bucks. And if I bought the rosewood and made them myself, I'd be paying more even before labor.

If you want them looking more original, simply ding them up a bit. ;)

Buying original parts from antique tool dealers who routinely ruin perfectly good planes to sell their more expensive pieces is a slippery slope of questionable actions. Not only are you aiding the reduction of a finite resource for profit, you are building a parts plane that could one day be sold as an honest original, when it is definitely not. It's always better to repair the original where possible.

[Mike Henderson]

Make them?

Seriously. It's not a difficult job, maybe a bit fussy on the rear tote, but easily enough accomplished.
Take care, Mike
I agree with Mike - they aren't that difficult to make. Probably the most difficult thing is drilling the hole for the rear tote. I drill then shape around the hole to make sure the hole is centered.

You can make beautiful totes (and knobs) from scrap cherry or walnut - and probably many other woods. After all, LN sells their planes with cherry knobs and totes.

You'll have a plane that's beautiful as well as functional, and it'll be because of your efforts. It'll be *your* plane - not just one bought from a store.

Mike

[Mike K Wenzloff]

Don't need to use Rosewood.

But Indian Rosewood in large enough turning blocks isn't very expensive and will make 3-4 tote and knob sets.

While one cannot beat Lee's price, making them is fairly easy way to pass an afternoon.

I think one will find that dealers like Pete do not ruin perfectly fine planes. Pete robs the totes and knobs off of planes which are cracked, etc. It's also a slippery slope to call into question other's ethics.

Take care, Mike

[Bart Leetch]

Here is a knob & tote I made for a Millerfalls #22 out of cherry I just carved away & sanded it till I liked the way it felt in my hands. This was my first set & won't be my last.

Same with chisel handles. Here are a couple of chisel handles I made.

Its a great feeling when you hold a tool in your hands that works good & also feels right as well as looks good to you.

Actually I'd have to say my venture into handle making is all my fellow Washingtonian Bob Smalser's fault I read his Chisel Handle article in Fine Woodworking Magazine. I will admit they probably are not up to his quality but hey I had to start somewhere, besides that I have to blame it on someone. I didn't make my handles exactly like Bob's I don't have a ready supply of thick leather so I tried hoops instead, beside that they wouldn't be my handles if I made the just like Bob's. :eek: :D

[Tom Vanzant]

Try Mike Taylor at planewood@sbcglobal.net. He's no longer in business but may have a few samples laying around. He's good folks... give him a try.
Tom Vanzant

[Bob Smalser]

I think one will find that dealers like Pete do not ruin perfectly fine planes. Pete robs the totes and knobs off of planes which are cracked, etc. It's also a slippery slope to call into question other's ethics.



I wasn't thinking about Pete, or anyone else in particular. You made that reference. It's just an observation from an old restoration gunsmith....a somewhat older field of collecting and abuse from consumerism and greed. In my grandfather's lifetime thousands of now-priceless old flint and percussion Pennsylvania rifles were sold by the pound to blacksmiths to burn off the wood and reuse the iron. We're only a generation or two short of that with prewar Stanley.

And just how many fragile, crossgrain totes survive longer than cast iron plane bodies? Not near as many as the number of original totes available on eBay demonstrate...and at higher prices than in may cases the whole plane would sell for. You bet your bippy folks are stripping perfectly good prewar planes because they can get more for the parts than the plane.

If I've given tool dealers and collectors an ethical issue to think about, then good, because that was exactly my purpose.

[Mike K Wenzloff]

Sure, there are folks who are stripping good to great planes and selling the parts off. Make more that way.

Unethical? Not certain selling parts off of planes rises to being an ethical issue as long as they don't misrepresent the parts. We are, of course, entitled to our respective opinions in the matter.

Last East Indian Rosewood 4" x 8" x 8" turning blanks I purchased were $19. The ones before that were $25. Price varies. One could make 3 sets out of that size blank.

After adding in "labor" they would of course cost more than Lee's price. But then again, I can purchase chisel handles, too.

Take care, Mike

[Bob Smalser]

Sure, there are folks who are stripping good to great planes and selling the parts off. Make more that way.

Unethical? Not certain selling parts off of planes rises to being an ethical issue...

Selling parts off is wasting a finite resource...wasteful if not unethical for now....but a seller implying even by silence that a plane is 100% original when he knows it isn't certainly is an ethical issue. You'd get banished for that in the antique firearms business.

I own a couple tracts of timberland, some on steep mountain slopes. I could legally strip that land well past what's healthy and fill my immediate pockets, but only at the expense of my children because of the soil that would wash away.

I'm sure all those blacksmiths burning antique rifles understood that 2-300 hours of high-end craftsmanship went into each one of them. They just weren't thinking past their noses to the day when no more remained, and what some of that then-cheap junk could mean for their children.

[Andrew Swartz]

Wow, Bob. I've never heard anyone argue that stanley planes are a "resource" like timber or water that should be conserved and protected from waste and degredation. Now that's passion for tools. Save the stanleys!

[Bart Leetch]

Wow Bob if you weren't so honest I say go into business making picture perfect reproduction totes & knobs after the supply of good used ones runs out. Just like they did with the old rifles.:) You should be able to make at least a buck two ninety-eight