#7 going rates

[Alan Schwabacher]

One way to find an inexpensive good planes is to first buy an expensive one so you have no need. Now keep your eyes open, and you will run across lots, particularly if you have access to MWTCA meets. If they are at a good price, buy them. Now all your friends can be well equipped.

[eugene thomas]

one for sale in the clasified that looks preatty good.///

[Stew Denton]

Jason, Steven pointed out a couple of other options besides Stanley. A third option is Keen Kutter planes, particularly the K7 model. The K7 was made by Stanley for Simmons Hardware, under their Keen Kutter brand name. The Keen Kutter "K" series was basically a type 3 Stanley Bedrock plane, but Stanley clearly did not want it to be quite as nice as their Bedrock planes, and it has the twisted type of horizontal adjuster, but the differences are strictly cosmetic. Being basically Bedrock planes, these are very good planes. You want a "K7", not a "KK7."
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The Keen Kutter "KK" series of planes was made early on by Ohio company, and I have read that later on they may have been made by Sargent, but I don't know that with certainty. The "KK" planes are probably OK, but the "K" planes are excellent.

There is a Keen Kutter "K7" on the auction site for about $120 ($99.99 Buy it Now plus $19.99 shipping.) It appears to be in great shape, although I can't see under the frog very clearly to see how that looks. It will need minimal restoration to make it look nice and be a good user, that is if the area under the frog is OK. It looks like there is some rust on the iron and chip breaker, so I can't tell much about the business end of the cutter. If interested you may want to ask the seller about those questions.

The type 3 Bedrock is a step up from the Bailey planes, although the Bailey planes were absolutely a professional grade plane.

Stew

[Stew Denton]

Jason,

I am not sure exactly what you are looking for as far as the condition of the plane is concerned. As you have figured out, you are not going to find a #7, or almost certainly not a #8, that has already been restored to "pretty" for $120 plus shipping on the auction site.

You might find one, as mentioned earlier, at a garage sale, flea market, or estate sale, but restored to "pretty" is rare as hens teeth at such a location. You are far more likely to find one that will need to be restored, but on the other hand the price should be very attractive.

I don't know what Bob was meaning about how #7s seldom come up on the Bay auction site, because there are at least 7 listed now that will sell in the next 6 days that have a current bid of less than $100, some a LOT less. There are fewer #8s than #7s, and they do generally sell for more, as you know.

If I was only going to have one jointer plane, it would be a #7. There is a reason why there are a whole lot more #7s out there. The #8s will do a very limited number of things that are harder with a #7, but overall the old timers who earned a living using one preferred the #7, which is why you see so many more of them. That is also why I would get a 7 if I only had one. Those old timers knew what they were about.

Again, looking at the sold section on the Bay auction site, for less than $120 (which includes shipping,) I see some that should restore nicely to "pretty" with elbow grease, and plenty of Scotch Brite and #320 and #r400 sand paper. A tiny number were $100 or so which included shipping. I have done a few, and doing the bed with either bead blasting, or paint stripping, and then repainting the bed, refinishing the tote and knob, and Scotch Briting and polishing the metal, you can end up with a very nice lookng and extremely functional plane. It is not technically difficult but it does take quite a few hours and I also work over all the threads with a fine wire brush, etc.

Now I look things over very carefully from the photos on the auction site, and don't bid on a pitted beast, you want few and only very minor pits if you are going to end up with a nice looking one. Also, if the plane just is darkened with a patina, it can clean up nicely. You especially want to avoid an iron that is pitted on the business end, you can't fix that. If the pitting is limited to just at the chip breaker contact point and is clean after that point, you can cut the bad off, and I have done exactly that.

Most of us are going to go the "restore" route rather than pay the $275 or more that Bob paid, but you usually get what you pay for. Bob either paid for a plane that had been taken good care of it's entire life, or he paid for another persons labor that went into the restoration. When I was younger price was darned important, but I had time to restore a plane.

There are a number of folks like Bob out there that are happier to pay more and thus start with an excellent plane, and I say more power to them, as they know what their situation is. I just don't happen to be one of them, and there are a lot of us out there like me, and I suspect that you are also one of those.

At any rate, again, I believe that you can get a very restorable #7 on the auction site for $100 plus shipping if you keep after it.

For what it's worth, I have wanted a particular mid price Stanley combination plane for about 5 years. (We are not talking about the high dollar Stanley #55s here.) I bought a couple of irons cheap a little over 4 years ago. A year and a half or so ago I bought a reasonably priced set of irons. Over the next few months I managed to buy small parts that are frequently missing from the plane itself, but are normally pricy, and got them for about 1/2 what they normally go for. Finally a few months ago I ended up buying the plane body itself, and paid about 1/2 what they normally go for. Mine is somewhat dark, and will need considerable metal polishing, but except for being a bit dark color, it is in superb shape. My example took almost 5 years to get the entire plane, but it will eventually be very nice, and will be a great user. What I am saying here is that it can be done, but you have to have patience.

Don't let your #7 take any where near 5 years to get though.

Stew

[steven c newman]

The No. 8 in my shop at the moment...was given to me by the Late Charles Neil.....to fix up and put to use.

The Ohio 0-7 was a "trade" plane....where I traded a couple other planes for it...and rehabbed it..

That Stanley No. 7c? $25 with shipping...took a bit of clean up.

Chris Hatchet has another of my Stanley No. 7s.....a smooth sole one.

[Jason Buresh]

Hi everyone! I feel kinda foolish posting this a few days later after saying I have been hunting for a long time, but I jumped on a plane last night from eBay. I got an earlier version, which I prefer, and I paid $79 plus shipping. Very little rust but a nice patina, tote and knob are intact, the only thing is the iron may not have a ton of life left, but replacement irons aren't terribly expensive. I will post pictures once it gets here!

[Stew Denton]

Jason, congrats! Ya did good!

Looking forward to the photos, and it sounds like the plane may be good to go now "as is." The iron may need sharpening or relacing from what you wrote above, but otherwise it sounds like a good plane, and virtually good to go, again, "as is."

Stew

[Jason Buresh]

As promised, here are some pictures. I couldn't be happier! It's in beautiful shape and it even came sharp!

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Looks nice.. even better if it is a user.

[Bob Jones 5443]

Stew, you’re right about the trade off between pristine and cheap. It’s a broad spectrum. The one I bought was on the better half — but not at the end — of that spectrum.

I didn’t mean to come off like an elitist. I just didn’t want to buy in over my skill set to rehabilitate the tool. It was only my second restoration. I wanted to avoid surprises that would leave me with a vintage paperweight. Maybe I overpaid. Folks here seem to think so.

My 607 still took months before I was happy with it. The derusting and polishing took the usual few hours of soaking and abrasion. The frog seating was fine, so probably the 1922 tool was well cared for during its life. All the surfaces did need cleaning and polishing. But none of that was hard for me.

What took time was making sure the sole was flat. Why have a jointer plane that’s not flat? This part took me on an odyssey that culminated in my finally buying a 6x18” granite surface plate. I tried for months to find someone who would let me use their plate, but came up empty. Once I had the plate (on steep sale from Woodcraft), I was in business after a round of swipes. I proceeded to flatten my bench. Delight!

Overall my plane was not in excellent condition when it arrived, but it was not so far from it that I couldn’t get it there by myself.

The plane is now indeed pristine and exquisitely tuned, and I still paid far less than a L-N No. 7 would cost.

My sense is that my least favorite part of the job is the deep cleaning and rust removal. My seller had not done the work; he had just bought wisely from some estate sale I couldn’t go to.

I’d do it again with this price/condition combo. And those are the planes I don’t see every day on the Site That Shall Not Be Named.

[Stew Denton]

Mike,

Very nice job and plane.

Stew

[Jason Buresh]

Andrew,

I gave it a test run and I have no complaints

[Stew Denton]

Bob,

It sounds to me like you get a well deserved "Ya Did Good" for the way the plane turned out. I have done a few myself, so I know what it takes to get that done, but I have never tried to flatten the sole of one like you did.

You may have paid more than you should have for the 607......join the crowd....I would guess almost all of us here have at one time or another have done something similar. When it comes to paying too much, I certainly have. I did worse than Jim, because I have at least 2, not one, "great bargain" planes that after I bought parts were a couple of over priced bargains.

I have learned to be a bit more careful now, and now am a lot more picky about what I bid on or buy outright. I have gotten more like you in that I try to get stuff that can be restored with less than a ton of time and effort. It is worth spending an extra 15 or 20 bucks to save 10 hours of restoration time. Fortunately I have most of the tools I need now.

I have watched the prices of the planes go up and down over a period of years, at times the prices are a lot higher than at other times. Usually the bigger Bed Rock jointer planes sell for quite a bit if they are pretty nice though, particularly the flat sides like you have.

It sounds like you ended up with a great plane, the 607, a plane that is completely restored to very nice condition, and that is also a great user. That's all you can ask.

Regards,

Stew

[steven c newman]

Both look good! Now....how about the all-important shot of shavings being made?
Tool Cabinet build, jointer in use.JPG
Stanley No. 7c, type 9

[Jim Koepke]

Looks like you did good Jason.

My #7 is from about the same time period didn't look as nice as yours when it came home:

Jointer Plane.jpg

It came out looking pretty good:

#7 Jointer Finished.jpg

It really doesn't feel like that was over 10 years ago. It is a great user.

jtk