I was largely joking about tapping it - although I have form - but contend it's not really "sacrilege" anyway. There are thousands of these planes around and their value is in being useable, not collectable. But if you can save the trouble and get a like for like replacement made anyway, no worries. No way are you going to get a 10-24 to fit that 28 tpi thread, that's for sure.

This has been interesting and highlighted a couple of things for me. Firstly, it's slightly amusing that, on one of the rare occasions Record came up with their own design of plane, they still had to copy Stanley by using an oddball thread on it. And secondly and more importantly, to make sure I don't lose those screws!

Cheers, Alf