Thread: Pretty little thing

John I'll take them off your hands for $15

Nice score

That electric blue paint scheme brightens up the shed, eh?

Nice looking planes you have there - hadn't heard of WS before.

If you do conquer the addiction John let us know how!

Originally Posted by rsser

If you do conquer the addiction John let us know how!

Perhaps we could do a Ben Cousins and produce a documentary.

I love it how the quality of shavings are more important than the actual work piece when you've just finished a plane rebuild.

Nice job on those ones.

I keep some scraps of different woods to try out planes on. Theory being if it can plane a good hard wood without chatter or tearout then it is ok for a user.
As for the addiction I blame this forum for getting me started. For many many years I got along with No4, a cheap block and 2 spoke shaves. Now I dont know how many planes I have as I have not done a count in a while. Talk about showing all the signs. Chisels can be just as bad too. Saws, god almighty! Have we a tools anonymous group.
Perhaps I can cut back to just WS planes for a while.
Regards
John

Originally Posted by orraloon

Perhaps I can cut back to just WS planes for a while.
Regards
John

Definitely fooling yourself.

Originally Posted by orraloon

.....I blame this forum for getting me started.....

oh so ditto!
My father's No5 and my grandfathers No6 hid under the house for years and survived a number of 'junk removals'. Once they even made it onto the trailer but Helen took them out. Then came the forum. I wanted to know where to buy Ttrack, I googled, I found .... I stayed.
Now I use those grand old Stanley planes and took the greatest joy in making furniture for my daughters using their father's, grandfather's and great grandfther's planes. I buy planes, I restore them ... I'm a happy little fletty.

Originally Posted by orraloon

Hello all,
Well I have been at it again. On the hunt for old planes.

I will have to curb this plane collecting as I am getting the bug bad.

It's contagious. I too am suffering. I bought an assorted lot of tools including 5 planes last week - I don't even know what I'm getting yet (nor how I'll explain the box to the misses ) but there's a #78 and 4 bench planes. All the guy would say was 4 are Stanleys and 1 is Record. Anyway back to topic:

I looked at a WS for sale a while back but didn't know anything about them. What is the face of the frog like (doesn't show in your photos)? Is it fully machined or is the machining just on a series of ridges like later Stanley/Records?

Cheers, Vann.

Hi Vann,
They are very similar to the record. There are still milling marks on the frog as in record and stanley. I am of the "if it works then let it be" school, so as there is no chatter and it works ok I have not bothered to go any further than a clean and sharpen.
As far s I could find out WS were bought out by Woden tools in 1952 or 3 then Woden were taken over by Record some years later.Record Hand Planes
Check out the 78 rebate. Would explain the similar look to record.
Regards
John

I found the best cure is to have to sharpen them all at one sitting, when they are well & truly dull because you've already worked through them twice looking for the least blunt to finish something that was supposed to be ready yesterday...... By the 8th or 9th plane you start asking yourself, "Do I REALLY need 15 planes?"

Cheers,

LOL.

I once thought that lapping the soles would cure me but it's strangely addictive. And now there's the skill to be learned of scraping them flat.

And there's the 'lucky dip' element of buying an old Stanley off ebay and seeing what shape it's really in.

I have not got to lapping soles yet. If a steel rule shows it is reasonably flat and it can take a decent shaving then I can live with that. Even if the side and sole is not exactly square I can get by provided it takes a decent cut. The exception is if it is to be used on a shooting board then I like it square.
Regards
John