Why a Stanley Type 11? I give up!

[James Taglienti]

I really dig the type 9. The 3 thru 5 size have a unique frog thats a big old slab of iron, and it milled to sit on the bed perfectly. Next best frog to bedrock for sure!

[Jim Koepke]

A lot of the hype for type comes from people who are respected in the field saying something like, "this type was made during Stanley's golden age of tool making," or "this type is as cute as socks on a squirrel."

Then all of a sudden all the blog followers are out beating the bushes for a particular type and "quoting the experts" all across the internet.

It is nice to have all the bells and whistles of the type 10 and later, but I do not adjust my frogs that often.

I like the low knob of the earlier type, so my type 12- 13 #3 now has a low knob. I like the larger adjustment wheel. So most of my pre type 12 planes now have a larger adjustment wheel.

My type 6 #4 wouldn't get traded for another #4 of any type. It is beat up, has rust spots and is just generally funky, but it sure can smooth wood. I have had other #4s including a couple of Bedrocks that have been sold because they would bring more money than this one and not do the job any better.

In the opinion of many, Stanley made their best planes between 1902 and the early 1930s.

There are also a lot of people who want a particular type for a gloat factor among their collecting friends.

In my opinion, knowing the type of the particular plane is helpful and does give an idea of the tools age. In my opinion in some cases it is a lot of hype.

If it is a good plane that makes the surface of the wood smooth, what more can one ask?

jtk

[Archie Hendrick]

Thanks, everyone, for the responses and especially for the education. Knowing that I don't have to wait around for type 11s to turn up really opens up my options for putting together a basic set of planes to get started with (at a reasonable cost).

I've been reading up on tuning and have been working on my sharpening with some old irons and even bought a #5 Hock blade to hone even though I don't have a #5 plane yet . I think I'll start shopping.

Arch

[anthony wall]

at last, some common sense coming into a thread ,tools arent any better because someone tells you so even some cheap tools can work great,when i arrived in thailand after leaving my tools in the uk i needed a plane so went out to buy a stanley type steel plane .could only find the cheap wooden type so i had to buy one cost of 260 baht about $9.00 after i sharpened it and set it up i find it works just fine ,now that i have more tools around me i still use the cheap plane in preference to other more expensive models at times

A lot of the hype for type comes from people who are respected in the field saying something like, "this type was made during Stanley's golden age of tool making," or "this type is as cute as socks on a squirrel."

Then all of a sudden all the blog followers are out beating the bushes for a particular type and "quoting the experts" all across the internet.

It is nice to have all the bells and whistles of the type 10 and later, but I do not adjust my frogs that often.

I like the low knob of the earlier type, so my type 12- 13 #3 now has a low knob. I like the larger adjustment wheel. So most of my pre type 12 planes now have a larger adjustment wheel.

My type 6 #4 wouldn't get traded for another #4 of any type. It is beat up, has rust spots and is just generally funky, but it sure can smooth wood. I have had other #4s including a couple of Bedrocks that have been sold because they would bring more money than this one and not do the job any better.

In the opinion of many, Stanley made their best planes between 1902 and the early 1930s.

There are also a lot of people who what a particular type for a gloat factor among their collecting friends.

In my opinion, knowing the type of the particular plane is helpful and does give an idea of the tools age. In my opinion in some cases it is a lot of hype.

If it is a good plane that makes the surface of the wood smooth, what more can one ask?

jtk

[Martin Cash]

Actually the type 11 did have most of the improvements that Stanley introduced to its planes along the way - all except one.
All of the types up until that point came with the small brass depth adjuster.
It was only after the type 11 that the larger depth adjusting wheel was introduced.
To my mind this is often forgotten as a huge improvement in performance. The added mechanical advantage of the larger depth adjuster made it possible for depth adjusting on the fly, simply with the fore finger on a well tuned plane.
The small depth adjuster virtually precluded this. This depth adjuster improvement actually brought about a change in the way planes were used, and was so much more efficient and a great time saver.
So type 12's onwards are the best of them for me.
Cheers
MC

[John Powers]

I'm 63 and I guess my 3,4,5 and 7 are all as old as me. Don't know type from shinola. The 3 with keyhole is a sweetheart and works so well I can't bring myself to buy a new iron and chip breaker. The ward master 4 is a gem, pitted chrome and all, the 5 with the hock iron is a workhorse and the 7 from an old forumite does the job. I build little boats and the planes help me do that. Did I mention I love my 90 and 93?

[Jim Koepke]

It was only after the type 11 that the larger depth adjusting wheel was introduced.
To my mind this is often forgotten as a huge improvement in performance. The added mechanical advantage of the larger depth adjuster made it possible for depth adjusting on the fly, simply with the fore finger on a well tuned plane.

Guess my technique must be wrong, I do the same thing with the smaller adjusters. My biggest problem is remembering to turn it the correct way. Most of my planes with the small wheels are type 6 or type 4. They adjust the opposite of the later planes. This usually gets me when using my type 9 #6 since the type 4 is used more often. I kind of feel dumb when trying to adjust the blade and wonder why the cut is getting thinner or thicker when I want the opposite. Then comes the slap the forehead moment.

jtk

[Bob Jones]

What a funny coincidence. This weekend I bought 6 different type 11 planes to tune up as users. I got 3 thru 8. None of the fraction sizes. I will post pictures when they all come in. I guess I gave in to the hype!

[Sam Takeuchi]

Guess my technique must be wrong, I do the same thing with the smaller adjusters. My biggest problem is remembering to turn it the correct way. Most of my planes with the small wheels are type 6 or type 4. They adjust the opposite of the later planes. This usually gets me when using my type 9 #6 since the type 4 is used more often. I kind of feel dumb when trying to adjust the blade and wonder why the cut is getting thinner or thicker when I want the opposite. Then comes the slap the forehead moment.

jtk

I do the same. I have no problem making depth adjustment on the fly with small depth adjustment wheel. My hands are not big, normal size and fingers are short, but even then, I can easily reach and turn small depth adjustment wheel on even larger planes like No.7. If depth adjustment wheel is hard to turn or need more than a finger pressure (I normally do it with just middle finger while the rest of fingers stay put), lever cap is too tight or depth adjustment wheel is not turning smoothly.

I use mixed bag of planes (Stanley, Record and LN BD planes, LV LA/BU planes, wooden English planes, Japanese planes) and this adjustment on the fly never seemed that important. I don't tend to change cutting depth all that much once it's set, so even if small adjustment wheel makes it impossible to change cutting depth on the fly, how being able to do that revolutionalized plane technique is a mystery to me. It's a convenience that may save a few seconds from more traditional hammer/mallet tapping method, but you can achieve very precise adjustment with hammer/mallet, too. I mean I do it when I'm using metal bench planes, but I don't feel that it has contributed that greatly to planes' performance or time saving as a whole. So it doesn't upset me if it doesn't work.

As far as original topic goes, what happened to all the praise SW planes used to get (type 13 to 15)? I seem to recall until very recently SW era planes were considered as the hallmark of quality and features amongst the Stanley bench planes (I don't. I think it's just an easily identifiable era when Stanley made quality tools. A safe bet). I didn't know type 11 became so popular these days. My Stanley planes tend to be type 9s and 11s. If anything, I'd go for type 9 if I could choose. I just don't care for frog adjustment screw. But really, don't trust the hype over type. It's fun for those who can spot different types of Stanley planes, and some people like to collect certain type, but no one particular type was ever exceptionally better than the rest. Differences are subtle, some small things in a type appeal to some people (like my "post type 9 but pre-type 16 frog, no logo lever cap, oh low knob and I don't care for frog adjustment screw if possible" pretty much narrows it down to type 9 to 11). Stanley made good quality planes, but they weren't great by any stretch of imagination. They never bothered to produce consistently good blades (aside from M2 blade Stanley made down in Australia). Some were usable, but they were never great. Contrary to popular belief, SW logo-ed blade isn't any different from the rest of early 20th century blades. There was nothing special about them.