Source for plane cutters??

[John Keeton]

Giving some thought to trying to buy a Stanley 50, maybe a 45 - who knows - the slope is getting steeper!:eek:

Seems that there are many available, but a lot of them without cutters. Since I have no interest in a "collector piece", are there sources for new blades/cutters for these planes.

This may be a simple question with a well known answer, and if so I am apologetic. But, this tailed woodworker, that is fighting the slide to no avail, needs to know. Thanks.

[Robert Rozaieski]

You could make them yourself from some O1 steel. It's not that hard to do since the blades are small and simple. Heat treating can be done with a torch. I've made a few spokeshave blades this way and they are very nice. May take a time or two to get used to the heat treating part but it's really not rocket science. For woodworking, they don't need to be perfect.

Jim Reed used to make blades but from what I hear he got out of this business. He was the only one I knew that did it so if you don't want to make them yourself, you may just have to keep an eye on ebay for blades. They are fairly common on ebay.

You really don't need them all though. Just get one and try it out first and add blades as you need them. You'll figure out which ones you need as you use it. Many of the blades won't see much use. I had a Sargent 1080 without all the blades and after using several of the blades that did come with it, I decided that it didn't work well enough for those tasks (beading and dados) to warrant replacing the missing blades. Instead I used the plane only for long grain polwing and got dedicated wooden dado and beading planes. I later sold the plane for a dedicated wooden plough as well.

[John Keeton]

Thanks Robert for the quick response! As a "hybrid" woodworker, I probably, emphasizing "probably", will rely on powered tools for most dado and groove work. What I am looking for is a good way to do some beading and fluting with handtools.

I have searched and read several posts on SMC and elsewhere on scratchstock. I have the little maple Veritas beader that I have used once on my current project, and that got my interest up. I have even given thought to building my own jig for scratchstock blades using a lot of the info that is out there. But, the idea of a Stanley 50 is still interesting. I realize that it is subject to tearout, but still may be fun.

[Wilbur Pan]

Here's another way to look at the "complete set of cutters" issue that comes up with these sorts of tools.

No one ever buys a router and thinks, "Now I have to get every single bit in the Whiteside catalog." Why the same thinking applies to Stanley 45 and similar planes, I'm not sure. That's probably more of a collector's mindset, and if there was a market for old CMT router bits, people would have a lot more router bits than they need or use.

[Barry Vabeach]

John, St James Bay Tool used to offer cutters for the 45 - I don't know about the 50, though you can call an ask - the prices for the 45 blades are about 5 - 7 per blade - though they come unhardened so you would have to heat treat . http://www.stjamesbaytoolco.com/stanley.html

[george wilson]

Send them to me,John. I'll harden them for you.

[John Keeton]

Thanks Barry for the link. I checked their listing and they don't show blades for the 50, but I will call them Monday and see.

George, PM sent!!

[Duane Mohney]

St. James bay doesn't currently do blades for the 50, but they are on his todo list. Timing of actually doing them is based on current demand, which is light.

[Dave Matson]

Stanley still sells combination plane blades on their tool parts website. They would definitely work with the 45 as they have the depth adjustment notch on the side.

http://www.stanleytoolparts.com/combination.html

[Bill Houghton]

Cutter groups - I hesitate to call them "sets" - show up on eBay regularly, too. I'm not sure it's cost-effective to buy a 45 without cutters and cutters separately, unless you score a major deal on the 45 itself.

The selection of cutters available directly from Stanley is limited. I bought a couple of them, and they're well-finished; I have yet to have time actually to use them on a project.

[James G. Jones]

John,

Here's another vote for make them out of O1. I bought some O1 from Online metals and make them as I need them. Doesn't take much to heat treat them. I have done it with a mapp gas torch and used oil from frying a turkey. The cool part about that is that you can make any profile you like.

James