Thread: A few more planes to upgrade.

I picked up a Stanley 110 - the same tool as the Record - a few years back for something like 50 cents (about 75 cents in Aussie dollars, at current rates) because, someday, I'd like to put together a minimal tool kit and make a couple of items of furniture with it. Way too many people writing about woodworking push buying all the newest and best stuff, and lots of it, to make anything; I think much can be done with little by a determined person. I'll be interested to see what you think of this once you clean it up.

The Stanley 90J bullnose plane - what you've got there - is an excellent, not-well-known tool, in my opinion. Depth of cut is set by your fingers, with experience (a note about that in a minute), but, once you sharpen the iron well and set the depth carefully, it's every bit as good as the more expensive planes. I've got a (later production) Record 077A in addition to my Stanley 90J, and I prefer the Stanley because it's more comfortable to grip. The Stanley offers a finger rest for the index finger; the Record doesn't (early iterations of the Record have a finger rest as part of the lever cap, something Record dropped in later production).

You can sometimes set depth of cut with planes with no adjusters except your fingers by putting the plane on a smooth, flat surface, with a piece of printer paper or card stock on the sole in front of the mouth, then gently moving the cutting iron into place so it just touches the smooth, flat surface, before tightening the lever cap. It requires finesse, but isn't developing our skills part of the joy?

Originally Posted by Bill Houghton

I picked up a Stanley 110 - the same tool as the Record - a few years back for something like 50 cents (about 75 cents in Aussie dollars, at current rates) because, someday, I'd like to put together a minimal tool kit and make a couple of items of furniture with it. Way too many people writing about woodworking push buying all the newest and best stuff, and lots of it, to make anything; I think much can be done with little by a determined person. ....

Bill, my very first plane was a brand-new 110 (English Stanley) bought in 1958, after much scrimping & saving. It cost me 21/6 which is $2.15 in today's currency, but was a lot more in real terms back then for a 12 year-old ! I still have it & use it mostly for rough work, it has far too large a mouth for fine stuff, but with a sharp blade & fine cuts you can persuade it to do a reasonable job on less cranky woods.

I agree with the sentiments re making do with basic tools though it probably sounds like hypocrisy coming from someone with a shed full of "fancy" tools. However, some of what I think are among my better pieces were built back when I had a very limited set of very basic tools!

Originally Posted by Bill Houghton

....You can sometimes set depth of cut with planes with no adjusters except your fingers by putting the plane on a smooth, flat surface, with a piece of printer paper or card stock on the sole in front of the mouth, then gently moving the cutting iron into place so it just touches the smooth, flat surface, before tightening the lever cap. It requires finesse, but isn't developing our skills part of the joy?

I do something similar, but skip the paper part. I find just inserting the blade 'til it touches the wood, then tightening gives a good exposure. If it's too much, as it often is with a couple of my planes, I just loosen off & gently push the plane forward a bit, which causes the blade to retract slightly, re-tighten & off I go. This works fine where precise set isn't too important but it's sometimes a bit hit & miss. For example, the screw on my 110 tends to slew the blade as it's tightened (about 20 years ago I put a dab of braze on it & smoothed it to a rounded point, which greatly reduced that problem but hasn't eliminated it). So there are situations where I need to pull out my brass hammer and do a bit of tippy-tapping to get a precise set....

Cheers,
ian

A very good score for the money. Funny how a little rust can put some people off but it is sometimes to the advantage of us old tool hunters.
Regards
John

Hi Martin .
Nice find on the planes. Very good price. They will clean up in no time.
I read your post and checked up on your location. I never realized how close to France Jersey was.
I was never paying attention at school full stop, stupidly. Specially in Geography.
I remember watching TV shows, documentary's and movies about WW2 on Jersy .
I thought it was off the English coast, not just off the french coast.

How do you go getting wood to use there . Is it just imported types of timber or do you also have local sawn stuff ?
What types of Local trees grow there?

Rob .

Originally Posted by auscab

...I never realized how close to France Jersey was... I thought it was off the English coast, not just off the french coast...

From where I'm sitting, here on the West Coast of the U.S., it looks to be off both coasts.

Hi John , Rob and all.

People throw the old rusty tools away,
as they are too lazy to spend time cleaning them or just
do not want them after their relatives have passed away.
We import most of our timber as the trees we have are
either chestnut, horse chestnut, conker, Oak Beech, Ash,
Birch, Hazel, Lime, Elm and pine. A lot of trees are protected
over here because of over development. I have finished
cleaning the first plane. I chose the Sedgley as it said on line
that the plane casting was green. I thought mine was black.
Once I cleaned it in washing up liquid and got all the dirt
and grease off I could see the green paint. I used French
polish on the Tote and Knob and a lot of elbow grease.
Am pleased with the plane now with three more to go.

Martin.IMG_20230405_180558.jpgIMG_20230405_180935.jpgIMG_20230405_182102.jpg

Martin

That was an excellent purchase by any standard.

Regards
Paul

Hi all,

Just cleaned up the 90 J Bullnose plane and the Stanley Bailey
No 4 . They are both in good shape. The Sedgley no 4s which I cleaned
up earlier is quite a lot heavier than the Stanley Bailey no 4 at 115 grams
more. The Stanley no 4 does not seem to have had a lot of use.

Martin.IMG_20230427_092331.jpgIMG_20230427_092343.jpg

Hi all,

I have just finished the last plane
which I purchased in April. I was trying to
find some blue paint to be as close to colour
as the Record planes. I found a half tin where
I bought the planes. Paid £ 1.00 for the paint.

Martin.IMG_20230508_113700 (1).jpgIMG_20230508_113736 (1).jpg