A gift

**Shedhand** · 23rd February 2006, 12:37 AM

G'day all, my SIL's father who has enough trouble driving a car let alone a nail, turned up the other day with a Stanley No4 that belonged to his father. Its been sitting under the house for about 15 years. The whole thing was covered in oily dust which tends to gather under houses. I cleaned the dust off with some turps and discovered almost 100% japanning, no cracks or chips. Both tote and knob (rosewood) are undamaged. Only very light rust. The blade and chip breaker are in good nick. the cap is plain metal (no nickel). It has and made in USA and Pat. No. 191875 (said 191874 in original post) embossed in front of the tote and Bailey (said Made in USA behind knob in original post) behind the knob.

The odd thing is that the casting seems to be of a poor quality compared to planes Made in England. I lapped the sole to 360 and it looks as though there are air bubbles (hmm.. not air bubbles, more like puddling - like when you drop a stone in thick mud) in the grey metal. It has an almost porous look about it. I also put the Gifkins CNC square across the sole and it's concave less than .5mm the length of the sole. The sides are also uniformly approx 1.5mm out of square with the sole. And lastly the blade has a 5 degree skew right to left looking down on the mounted blade. The plane has had very little use so I can only surmise that the plane was supplied with the skewed blade. Am I expecting too much. :confused: Is this normal for yankee made planes. Are English planes better quality. Could this be my scrubber?

**MajorPanic** · 23rd February 2006, 08:00 PM

Hey Sheddy,

First off............. Where's the pictures?????????

Now, if ya check out ePay you will see USA Stanley planes are usually valued at a higher price them the Pommy versions.
The #10½ I was recently given is English & seems to be poorer quality than the #10 USA I have. So I don't know the answer to your question about origin quality.

**Clinton1** · 23rd February 2006, 08:31 PM

Sheddie, don't look for logical reasoning where collectors are involved: its all about fashion and nationality.

**Greg Q** · 23rd February 2006, 08:35 PM

I think that the later (between the wars) planes made in England were heavier than the American castings. As to quality? I can't say, as the only English planes that I own have the later frog design, so they are not directly comparable. You'll soon have a couple more American ones to compare-I'll be interested to hear your verdict.

Greg

**Shedhand** · 23rd February 2006, 09:36 PM

Originally Posted by MajorPanic

Hey Sheddy,

First off............. Where's the pictures?????????

Now, if ya check out ePay you will see USA Stanley planes are usually valued at a higher price them the Pommy versions.
The #10½ I was recently given is English & seems to be poorer quality than the #10 USA I have. So I don't know the answer to your question about origin quality.

Note: See my edit of the opening post.

I'll take some pics tomorrow.

Why do some people refer to eBay as ePay? Aren't we allowed to say eBay here...:confused::confused:

Cheers

**Shedhand** · 23rd February 2006, 09:37 PM

Originally Posted by Clinton1

nationality.

:confused: what's nationality got to do with it?
Cheers

**Shedhand** · 23rd February 2006, 09:39 PM

Originally Posted by gregoryq

I think that the later (between the wars) planes made in England were heavier than the American castings. As to quality? I can't say, as the only English planes that I own have the later frog design, so they are not directly comparable. You'll soon have a couple more American ones to compare-I'll be interested to hear your verdict.

Greg

Lookin' forward to that greg.
Cheers mate

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