Hand Plane ID Sources?

[John Shaffner]

Ok guys, I am totally new to the hand plane, although I've always been intrigued by their use. Today, I was at an antique sale and picked up what I believe to be a 40's vintage, Craftsman rabbet/bullnose plane in decent shape. It's similar to a Stanley 78. Anyway, I got it for like $15 figuring what do I have to lose? I also have several other block planes which I have yet to ID. One is a Bailey w/no numbers I can find, and the other are who knows what, but look to be decent. So, the question is: how do I ID these suckers with no numbers or maker marks on them? I would like to do some restoration on them but would like to know if they're worth it. Since I've gotten one foot on this slope, I'm afraid to get too deep since I haven't a clue on what's good/bad or what their potentialworth would be...and would I be paying too much for something that ain't worth beans. Oh yeah, I don't know anything on how to restore properly or how to "dial in". I just, at this point, want a little variety of good user planes.

Any and all advice/direction is truly appreciated.

John

[Jim Koepke]

Howdy John,

One of the best resources for hand plane information and links is right here on SMC.

Near the top of the Neanderthal Haven conference is a "Sticky" titled Neanderthal wisdom/FAQs. It has a many posts of interest on hand planes.

In Section 5 is "Everything Hand Planes" that contains a lot of links to pages with hand plane information.

There are also a few posts further down which cover many of the steps involved in plane restoration.

As for a plane being worth fixing or not depends more on the owner than the plane.

One of my planes (a Stanley #102) was bought for $2.56 including sales tax. One of the luminaries in the world of hand tools calls it a cheap piece of junk. It is now one of my go to block planes for a lot of things. It is doubtful anyone would pay much more than I did for this beat up hunk of metal, but it works great.

Sometimes the "worthless" tools render the best education when they are given a chance to prove their worth.

jtk