Replies

1. 
   pzgren | May 12, 2006 02:05am | #1

     They are of pretty good quality: I have a #10 and a #5-1/4 that are WWII vintage (complete with the hard rubber adjustment knob). I'm real happy with the way they perform. The castings are a little heavier than their pre- and most of their post-war brethren. (The heavy castings were used up until, IIRC, at least 1947 for many planes, and a couple of years later for a few.)

     It's just my personal taste, but I like the pre-war planes better, particularly the low knob/small adjuster models (T-11 and earlier). The Sweethearts generally have really good quality irons, though....

     Generally accepted rule of thumb is WWII vintage or earlier, you're getting the best that Stanley ever produced. After about 1960 or so, the quality really started declining. I made the mistake of buying a 2000 vintage made in England #6; after several hours of tuning and lapping, it works ok-enough for rough work, but just barely; it irritated me so much that I bought a pre-1900 #6C, spent about 90 minutes tuning it, and is one of two planes I always reach for when I need a panel-plane sized plane (the other is a #5-1/2). It works just beautifully......go figure.....

     As long as the plane is complete and in good shape (no damage, no cracks in the casting, etc), you pretty much can't go wrong with a T-17 or earlier for a user. You may have to do some tuning, but that just lets you get to know your new toy.....

   Try this link, if you haven't already, for more info on Stanley planes than you'll ever want to know:

   http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan0a.html

     Hope that this is of some use to you.

   Cheers!

   James

1. 
   LeChuck | May 12, 2006 02:16am | #2

   Thanks very much for your reply James. Confirms that I don't have to worry about a real "flaw" in a WW2 plane aside from a less sexy knob and things like that (which I don't really care about).I have perused the Blood&Gore info already, but didn't find a real answer to my specific question, which is why I thought about asking here. I always read that pre-war planes are better but could never figure out if "pre-war" was absolute of if "war" was included in it :)Thanks.