Thread: STANLEY No 1 as a paperweight

No. 1 Stanley Plane-- Useful or Paper Weight?

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Greetings,

Sometime ago I had a friendly arguement with a friend of mine concerning the usefullness of a Stanley No. 1 plane. He said he had spoken to Lie-Nielsen about it years ago & he said that they had no real practical use. When I contacted the staff at Lie-Nielsen they gave me the same response. Yet I have found the plane very helpful to get to those hard to reach areas or when you need a small plane with a higher pitch than a block plane to plane some squirrelly wood on a fragile piece. Am I alone in this thinking? It seems hard to believe the Stanley Bailey Company would have produced a plane for 75 years that had no practical value! They weren't collector's items back then, they were either used or they not made.

Fine Tool Journal also had an article (although I can't find the issue) some years back that described the uses of the No. 1. In one example, an entire lot of original Stanley No. 1's were found in a teacher's workshop for his students. He taught how to make bamboo fly rods.

So I am just wondering if I am full of beans or if there are other believers about?

With apologies to the originator of this post,I'd like to progress the thoughts on this forum.

Given that you had access to a Stanley No1 handplane would you see yourself using it or leaving it as an heirloom for for your estate as part of a collection?
The above post raised some salient points that will continue to be raised from time to time as these tools become harder to come by for the ordinary Joe as collectors worldwide become enamoured with a "complete collection" that is locked away merely to gain worth like real estate.
I for one cannot see the merit in spending upwards of 2K$ for a fine tool if use is limited,by the same token I could envisage a collector with more money to spend having something in his collection because he can whether he uses it or not.
If the production run was as prolonged as that stated in the previous post then the demand must have been there for a small plane to survive in its size to cope for applications that requires it's size.

It would be interesting to hear others observations on whether the No1 amongst a myriad of fine tools are in all jest a paperweight or not.

Cheers