Some pricing questions

[Dominic Greco]

Recently I had the oppurtunity to visit a local dealer who was selling a #113 Type 1 Compass Plane as well as numerous #12 scrapers. The #113 was very rusty but had all it's parts. The #12s were in decent shape, but many were missing the scraper blade. He wanted $150 for the #113 and $50 for the #12.

looked these items up in my handy dandy "Collectable Stanley" book and found these prices weren't far of the mark. But the published prices were for items in much better condition.

Not that I'm about to buy these, :>) but I have a question. I would assume that accumulated rust is a definate bargaining point. Would a serious collector remove rust like this, or would they leave it? I know from watching the "Antiques Roadshow" that cleaning an antique is almost considered heresy and should be attempted only by pros or someone with experience. Would removing it by, say electrolysis, damage the value?

And if you're going to clean it off and use it, would that effect the value?

[Richard Niemiec]

Dominic: I saw the same planes at Lambertville Flea last Saturday, and took a long look at them and they were garbage for the prices he was asking. I would not pay more than $30 for those scrapers (and think twice doing so), as you are not getting a blade, the bases were a mess and you'd have to re-sole them, and the best you were doing was getting the raw iron and in general good handles, and in some cases, other parts were missing. In my view, forget those pricing guides, by looking and shopping you're getting to the point where you get a feel for value, so in this instance, keep shopping. Hell, you can get a new Lee Valley scraping plane for $150 - maybe it will be collectible in 75 years, but in the meantime it will work a whole lot better than if you bought one of those cats and dogs - after you spend 6 hours tuning it up, and after you spent $40 buying a new blade, re-soleing, etc.

That particular dealer is not all that savvy, in my view, and his inventory is C- or D+ at best. Keep hunting that iron. Rich

[Richard Niemiec]

Oh, I forgot the question. As far as rust, as far gone as some of those planes were, they would not have any collectable value in my view. Only user value, and as far as users go, as long as the plane functions well, clean away. Some guys strip off all the old japanning and re-jappan the bodies, smelly work, but they do it, and the plane is then "restored" which maybe in 50 years or so might be collectible again, but in the meantime its a useful and attractive tool. Maybe someday when I have more time on my hands I'll try the re-jappaning, but somehow I think not. My 2 cents. Rich

[Clint Jones]

Dominic,

I believe $50 is too much for the scrapers. If you can get him to around
$35 or $40 you may be in business. They are real easy to restore as long as the sole isnt too pitted. I can hook you up with a new blade for the no.12 for $8 shipped to your door or you can just make one out of a saw blade (I think the trouble it is to make one and get a saw isnt worth it when I can get fine machined new ones for $8). I think that the 113 is definately overpriced since you can buy 113's and no.20's one ebay in nice shape for less. The planes you mentioned arent really that rare and if you are going to be using them shine them up, give it a go. If they are for your collection just gently clean the rust off and the jappaning to prevent any further damage. It is easy to rejappan the No.12's.Hope this helps you out.

Clint

[Dave Anderson NH]

Issues of condition and price aside, for a user the type 1 in the #113 is a bad choice. It is not easy to adjust, shifts adjustment in use, and is not a very durable tool. As a general rule of thumb, type 1 in any Stanley plane is not a good choice for a user and is best left to the collectors. Later versions always improved and had enhanced features. Think of buying a type 1 plane as sort of like paying to be the beta tester of software.

[Dominic Greco]

You guys are a wealth of information here.

I had a suspicion that the planes were overpriced. But I didn't know by how much. While I don't trust the guide books implicitly, I like to have an idea how much a plane is worth. Using recent sales on Ebay as a pricing guide was also suggested to me.

As far as the rust goes, I'm of a mind that if I'm going to plop down a big wad of cash for a plane, it'd better look damn nice! Not like the rust was the only thing holding it together.