Favorite Stanley planes

[Floyd Mah]

Brad, I have nothing against LV or LN products since I do have a couple of LN planes. My #40 is 25% more likely to survive a fall in my workshop since I'm probably not as tall as you and hence my workbench is only 34" in height vs. a 4 foot drop in your workshop. Sad to say, but my days of having the agility to dive for a falling tool are gone and I have had the anxiety of picking up a fallen chisel, even today, and searching for the chip which would mean an hour of work to restore the edge. I might just have to replace all my cast iron planes, all except the LN planes, if I develop a habit of dropping the planes. Luckily I've been able to avoid dropping any of the planes and the only one with a crack was purchased in that condition. I could opt for a rubber floor mat also, if I do develop the dropsies, or if I become clumsy and make falling down a habit. Easier to dust sawdust from yourself after getting up from a rubber mat than from a concrete floor. One can never anticipate all the medical problems that comes with getting older. But, seriously, Mike asked about vintage Stanley planes, so a Stanley #40 would be a good choice. He might have to wait a couple more years for a LV scrub plane to become "vintage".

[Adam Cruea]

Hrm. . .which planes do I like the best?

Depends on the task at hand. For teeny-tiny work, like literally smoothing a small bump due to an underlying knot? The #2 I purchased that takes a whisper-thin shaving.

For smoothing? I prefer my LN 4 1/2 done at York pitch. It leaves the best finish of any of my planes. For spot work, I like my #603 with a SW iron, or my #604 with the PM-V11 iron (depends on the wideness of spot work).

For generally flattening, my #8 and #8C are monsters. I love those things, but they're only good for big work. Anything less than about 30 inches and they tend to create humps in the middle of work easily.

Then I have a Type 11 #5 that I use for getting rid of roughness and generally getting it to something resembling non-rough cut lumber.

And then, there's my #51 LN Shooter. I wish I could use that more, but alas. . .It's just for shooting.

So all in all, I like all my planes and can't really pick a "favorite". I do prefer the Bedrocks over Bailey. To me, they just feel more solid and can take a much thinner shaving, but I know it's all subjective. So instead of debating that with people, I just skirt that issue and say that I have a soft spot for how they look. They're rather sharp planes.