New Stanley Premium Planes

[Frederick Rowe]

This is the first I've seen of the new Stanley Premium planes. Advertised as a No. 4, it looks like a low angle bevel up with a Norris style lateral adjuster. Listed in Hartville Tool for $179. Manufactured in Mexico and UK.

[Charles Shenk]

Looks kind of cool but they are too late to the game for me. I'm already loaded up on LN's and old Stanley's. Glad to see the effort on their part.

[Martin Cash]

Have these planes been reviewed by anyone as yet?
It will be interesting to see an unbiased critique of the planes so that informed choices can be made on their quality and effectiveness.

[Casey Gooding]

I think it is a traditional bevel down plane that has a big bevel on the chipbreaker.

[jerry nazard]

You can FINE a thread on this topic that started this morning over on another WOOD WORKING forum.... YIKES! OOPS! Did I do that???

[Bill Houghton]

dropped the price on the new Stanley 60-1/2, before anyone's even bought any. Maybe it was a late breaking recommendation by Stanley, although why the low angle plane would cost $5 less to produce than the 20-degree plane I'm not sure, though perhaps it's narrower than the 20-degree plane, like the classic 60-1/2 was.

I'll be interested to see what Chris Schwarz, Derek Cohen, or other comparison artists make of them, although I hardly need more planes.

[Dave Lehnert]

I was at the LN tool event last week and one of the vendors said that Stanley contacted Hock blades about there use in the new planes. Have no idea if that came to be.

Just thought I would toss that in.

[Casey Gooding]

According to Stanley, the irons are made in England.
Also, interestingly (to me, at least) these were originally scheduled to be realeased Fall 2008. Wonder what the delay has been??

[Charles Murray Ohio]

Popular Woodworking has the new Stanleys, I believe they will be doing a review. I picked them up and was NOT impressed. The totes are very uncomfortable, they couldn't have been designed by a handtool user (probably by a CNC programer). But what's worse is they felt chunkey and unbalanced. Lie - Nielsen has nothing to worry about.

[Tom Adger]

It is my understanding that the blades are made in England, and the plane body is made in Mexico.

I am fed up with the companies in this country sending their work to foreign countries. Particularly in these difficult times with high unemployment. I would't mind paying a little more for American made.

My last two planes were from ebay. An old Millers Falls and an old Stanley. American made, as will the next one I buy, either a new LN, or back to ebay.

[Sam Takeuchi]

But it's not exactly a new practice to send manufacturing plants out of the country. The fact is majority of consumers aren't prepare to pay more for domestically produced items. A company like Stanley sell their ware to less discriminating consumers and their ware being the bottom of price range, they can still sell large amount of products.

The thing is, buying used US made products don't particularly affect high unemployment. Certainly money gets transfered domestically between sellers and buyers, but there is no manufacturing involved. Buying an old Stanley on eBay has no effect on Stanley, none of what you pay goes to them to create a job. Even when Stanley was producing in the US, post-WWII era planes steadily declined in quality. Even if they still made planes in the US now, I doubt you'd be enthusiastic about buying domestically made poor products with high prices just to support economy and create employment. One of the biggest cost in a company and production of an item is wages. As long as things are produced in a country where wages are relatively high, company has to cut corners in every way to keep prices down, that includes quality control. But Stanley isn't in it to feed the mid range market of LN and LV. They feed the very bottom of the market, and it's the largest market. It doesn't make sense to offer a $250 domestically made #4 to these buyers. They will simply move on to buying Anant, Groz, Woodriver and Kunz. If Stanley stuck to producing planes domestically, they would've stopped producing planes altogether long before now, I think.

[Joel Goodman]

Some of us would say that they have stopped producing planes. Let me put it this way -- how many creekers use a Stanley plane produced in the last 5 years?

[Sam Takeuchi]

Yes, I think people who spends more than a couple hours a week on woodworking would know that Stanley don't produce planes, but a half completed chunk of steel and it's the buyer who has to finish up the manufacturing process. But that's the thing isn't it. I don't think current Stanley planes are even aimed for part time woodworkers, but for ordinary folks who doesn't know blade needs to be sharpened, and wife's nagging about door scratching the floor, so gotta do something type of people. And there are millions of nagging family members who force non-woodworkers into buying these things. And those who want to have tools in the house even though they are totally incompetent with them (hey, even Homer Simpson has tools!) And I suspect, those half completed planes actually do serve their purpose for these rough works where they don't need to be concerned with squared corners or thin shavings.

By the way, from the picture, one thing that interests me is the blade. That thing looks really short. Will normal replacement plane iron fit? How does the Norris style adjuster work on that slotted iron? They haven't produced a plane iron harder than a block of butter in a while, if it was some kind of proprietary slot design, that would be a bummer.

Edit: Oh wait, I missed the cap iron. Of course adjuster will engages the cap iron.

[Bob Strawn]

I'm just waiting to see what price they put on a Norris style lateral adjuster as a replacement part. If the price is right I may just make another infill.



Bob

[Tom Adger]

Sam, you nailed it in your first paragraph "A company like Stanley sell their wares to less discriminating consumers".

Your lengthy second paragraph I liken to a pile of cow manure that has had a nice cake icing placed on it. You can put it on my plate, but I think I have enough sense to not touch it.

Yes, the labor costs would be higher in this country. Am I willing to pay a premium for a US made product? Yes. The percapita income in this county is higher here than in Mexico, or India, or where ever. You can call it patriotism or whatever you want, but I want to keep our money here in this country whereever possible.