Hi,

I have a pair of old Stanley 51 (not 151) spoke shaves I am fixing up to use. One appears older, is black, and is finished. Works great. The other is red, appears newer (mainly because it is red), and I think has some improper screws on it. I would like to replace them with the proper ones if this is the case.

Black has a slotted screw with a special shaped head to hold the cap. The cap fits over the screw head so the cap and blade can be removed without removing the screw. There is a knurled screw for tensioning the cap.

The screws on the black don't fit the red, BTW, the threads are not the same.

Red has two identical screws, chrome-plated brass with big slotted heads and 10-32 threads, 1/2 inch long. The head is too big to fit through the cap, so the screw must be removed to remove the blade. This seems wrong. The fact that the lever cap can only be tensioned with a screwdriver also seems wrong.

Before I go cruising McMaster or placing a WTB ad it would be nice to have confirmation that the screws I am looking for exist, or that perhaps this is a later #51 that was made with lousy parts after Stanley stopped caring about quality and usability.

Any Stanley spoke shave experts out there? Thanks.