Anyone seen one of these?

[Sean D Evans]

I found this plane in an antique shop today. The pictures speak for themselves. The logo on the blade is not one that I've seen before or could find any online info about. It was sitting next to a pre- Sweetheart stanley no. 5 1/2 so I compared the body castings. They are close but not exactly the same. For example the heel and toe are not quite the same shape and the one pictured is about an 1/8" narrower.

[James Taglienti]

It looks like stanley product, for a hardware store or firm. The cutter could be a replacement. They changed the width of the 5 1/2 at some point in its life, making it just as wide as the 4 1/2, 6, and 7. The sides at the heel and toe appear to have been chipped or otherwise damaged and someone filed or ground them to match. Thats why there is bright cast iron showing there and the rest of the plane is rusted.

[Ralph Boumenot]

It looks like a stanley from around the turn of the last century but it has a few different things about it. The first is the scallops at the toe and heel. User done? And the lateral adjust isn't a stanley. The screws holding the frog ass'y don't look like stanley either. I think they were flat head screws. It looks more and more like a user rehab to me. Certainly looks like it'll be a fine user either way. Hyper Kitten as a pretty good plane dating link that might help you out.

[Shlomo Hoffmann]

Your lateral adjustment lever is Union... see http://www.brasscityrecords.com/tool...lane%20id.html. I believe the scallops are user-made, probably to hide a chip on one corner and the rest for symmetry, perhaps...

[Jim Koepke]

Nothing to base my opinion up on, but the logo looks like it could be Ohio Tools.

They also used a twisted lever.

jtk

[Greg Wease]

It looks like stanley product, for a hardware store or firm.

I think James may be correct on this. I can't recall the name of the hardware store that used this logo (Harris? Hanson? H...? Tools) but I have seen the logo before. Stanley used the twisted lateral rather than the 2-piece version for several companies. The Keen Kutter "K" planes and Wards Master are a couple more examples.

[James Taglienti]

I wish brass city would change that webpage ... So many times folks have called a plane Union simply because of that photo with the twist lateral.

[Greg Wease]

Found the reference to the HT logo--it's from the Hudson Tool Company. Don't have any info on them.

[Sean D Evans]

Thanks for that last bit! I kept searching for t h co. That makes sense since I found it close to Vancouver, bc

[Joshua Clark]

I agree that it's probably a Union plane made before the Stanley buy-out made for a hardware store. I've seen a number of these and have two in my user kit- they are excellent planes. They were made in the early 1900s after most of the Stanley patents expired except for the frog adjusting screw and the two-piece lateral adjuster which I assume is why the Unions always had twisted laterals. At the turn of the 20th century there weren't many companies making metallic planes- Stanley was the biggest by far, Union and Ohio, and Sargent made similar planes but Sargent's and Ohio's were fairly distinct. Union made planes that were almost clones of the Stanleys up to and including the model numbers.

I've never seen evidence that Stanley made un-branded planes for hardware stores except for Keen Kutter. Later on they made lower-end planes for the homeowner market.

To me the scallops at the toe and heel look like they were later modifications, perhaps to hide some chips in the casting. The patina is clearly different than the top of the cheeks on the rest of the plane.

Josh

[James Taglienti]

I agree that it's probably a Union plane made before the Stanley buy-out made for a hardware store. I've seen a number of these and have two in my user kit- they are excellent planes. They were made in the early 1900s after most of the Stanley patents expired except for the frog adjusting screw and the two-piece lateral adjuster which I assume is why the Unions always had twisted laterals. At the turn of the 20th century there weren't many companies making metallic planes- Stanley was the biggest by far, Union and Ohio, and Sargent made similar planes but Sargent's and Ohio's were fairly distinct. Union made planes that were almost clones of the Stanleys up to and including the model numbers.

I've never seen evidence that Stanley made un-branded planes for hardware stores except for Keen Kutter. Later on they made lower-end planes for the homeowner market.

To me the scallops at the toe and heel look like they were later modifications, perhaps to hide some chips in the casting. The patina is clearly different than the top of the cheeks on the rest of the plane.

Josh

Ok... Heres the deal. Before the Stanley buyout, Union planes were more distinct than even Ohio. They all (except maybe for a couple rare ones) had Union cast on them somewhere, there were strange fractional sizes, alphanumeric sizes, even bevel down planes with adjustable mouths. They used Trasks patent adjusters, and had the X series. They even had an X1. After Stanley bought Union, they discontinued the old line and remarketed the Stanley made generic type 7/8 plane with a Union struck cutter. This was par for the course, the same thing they did with Birmingham plane co, upson nut co, Siegley, and HC Marsh. They bought the company and their patents, ran the inventory out, and then switched the tools to stanley manufacture.


This generic type 7/8 plane was also made by stanley for MANY hardware firms, including HSB, Bridge Tool, Pritzlaff, Keen Kutter, Van Camp, Winchester, Marshall Wells, and a dozen others. All of these planes had twisted laterals. It was just cheaper.

I dont believe Union made a plane under contract. The whole "twisted lateral must be Union" thing originated from a single misleading photo on a webpage. Ohio, birmingham, standard rule, union, and i am sure many others used a twist lateral. When we see a plane that has a twisted lateral but looks exactly like a Bailey, and shows the type 7/8 characteristics, its almost certainly Stanley made.

I read about these things. All of this is off the top of my head. The 5 1/2 is Stanley made, and the scallops are damage as was discovered earlier.

[Sean D Evans]

Well, thanks for the info. I couldn't fInd anything about Hudson tool cOmpany. I thought at first it had something to do with the Hudson Bay Company but I can't find anything to back that up.

If I had a use for a 5 1/2 then I would take it home.

[Andrae Covington]

This is a tough one. After lots of digging, I believe that Ohio Tool Co made some metallic planes for a Hudson Tool Co, which was possibly based in New York. I don't have anything definitive though, just a guess.

[Sean D Evans]

The possibility that it was an Ohio tool company plane makes sense too since I did do up some photos of their planes that look similar. I didn't find a 5 1/2 to make a direct comparison though. This plane is probably rarer than a Stanley No 1 but not worth much.

Does anyone have a 5 1/2 in their shop that gets used?

[Shlomo Hoffmann]

OK.... How about this?