Thread: Hand me down.

Nice!
A type 15. Probably the best of all the Bailey planes. They only went downhill after these.
Definitely worth the effort to get it tuned.
I have the same handle on one of mine. I find it quite a comfortable shape and very solid, maybe a bit cold in winter.
Keep the other one for rough work and this for fine smoothing.

Best wishes

Steve.

Originally Posted by Devery

Thank you very much for all the replies, links and tips! I suspected it was not the finest of models, but I agree it has been useful and may continue to be.

One of the coolest things about inheriting tools is the communion with your ancestors.

I don't know who my great grandchild will be or if I'll live to see him or her, but I beam with happiness at the idea that he may take an interest in the tools I use today, some of which were inherited down from my own great grandfather.

Plane collecting caught fire in the 80's and the 'collector information' base on them is extremely comprehensive and mature. Thankfully for woodworkers, the "collecting" side of plane acquisition really tanked some years back and prices have since come down to realistic levels again (although finding that prewar Stanley at a yard sale for a quarter is pretty much impossible anymore).

A lot of what determines one Stanley plane as being 'better' than the other is collector dogma, very little of which is derived from any given plane's ability to actually plane wood better than other models. For example, some production changes occurred at various stages and collectors heavily value certain features over other features, even though those features are completely irrelevant to the working tool.

Congrats on inheriting your grandfathers planes. Where ever he is, I guarantee he's smiling.

The aluminium handle on the plane was made by Quality Patterns & Castings (QPC) which was a foundry in Brunswick (Hope St, I think). I have one of them as well which was on a #4 that I inherited from my FIL. I have since replaced it with a wooden handle and kept it as a spare.
My father worked as a delivery driver for the firm which supplied aluminium to QPC and as a young teenager I used to spend my school holidays on the truck with him.

Originally Posted by Old gunnie

Anybody recall a sectionised drawing of a bailey plane with a parts description. Can't seem to find it myself now.

There's one on this page.. but it's not the one I was looking for!

Well there are these:
26236d1310241276t-hand-plane-help-image-755450918.jpg

2935869868_63bbc50ae4.jpg

hand-planes-08.jpg

plane-anatomy.jpg

Them's the ones SG!

Needed these myself when my vertical drop into neadertool-ville was still a slippery slope

There ya go James!

That's it, the top one is the one I was looking for, SG. Well done!

I will definitely be working on it soon, I'm excited. Thanks for all the help