[OP]
Contributor
I'm looking to pick up a Stanley Bailey #4 and #5 in user condition. I'm willing to do some basic cleanup but nothing too drastic. Based on my experience with my 1905-1910 #6, I want something pre WWII if possible. These should be as common as grains of sand.
What's a reasonable price for these planes. Is there a better place to look other than eBay?
-- Dan Rode
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle
Contributor
Ebay usually involves shipping and sometimes the shipping is more than one of these is worth.
The #4 and #5 are the most common sizes available on the used market. My preference is for pre 1929 (type 14) when the raised ring was added for the front knob.
Places to look would be:
Craigs list, I believe a search & alert can be set up.
Yard & Garage sales, some local news papers have listings of these.
Thrift stores often have some good finds. The problem is if you are in an area where someone else is looking for items to buy and sell they may already have an in with someone in the store or they may drop in regularly or get there early every day.
Junk and antique stores often have old planes. When I go into an antique or other store I always ask the person in the store about hand tools. They are also often open to negotiation on prices.
There is also an off shoot of Habitat for Humanity called The Restore. They often have old tools. A lot of pickers have them on their regular rounds.
Pawn shops often have old tools. Sometimes they have been on the shelf for a long time. Often the tag price is high, but sometimes they will negotiate.
As far as price is concerned, condition is everything. My first #5 at a flea market was $35. I sold it for the same amount a few years later. After learning a bit more about hand planes my price range has been held in the under $30 range on the #4 or #5 planes. A few in the $10 and under range.
For my use it is convenient to have a couple of #4s to switch off if a blade goes dull. Sometimes one is set for a heavier cut than the other.
With the #5s one is set for fine work and the other is set for coarse work. If one wanted to use another for a scrub plane that would be a good reason to have 3. There are 4 in my shop.
Happy hunting,
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Contributor
I lived in NE Ohio from 79-97 and bought most of my planes there. Try Unionville. They have a great antique show annually or maybe even twice each year. There was an auction place between Madison and Perry, I think it was on Route 84. For users, at flea markets, I top out at about $20.
Head out early on Friday mornings for the best picking at garage sales. One of my favorite planes is a corrigated #5 I picked up for $3 at a garage sale in Ashtabula. Looked like hell and needed a new tote. I think it was the first plane I actualled fettled. Now I keep it close at hand.
Guest
If you're buying on ebay, look for a plane that has a decent shape chipbreaker, good wood, a full length iron that you can see the back of and that has no more than light rust. No casting problems (breaks, huge scratches or cracks, or repairs)
It shouldn't be more than about $40 + shipping, though you'll see gobs of sellers thinking they should get twice as much.
Best place to find what you can expect to get with just a little bit of patience is sold listings on ebay.
If you're out in the wild, prices will go from a few bucks to ...gobs of sellers thinking they should get twice or three times market price.
[OP]
Contributor
Thanks for the advice!
Garage sales take a lot of time and travel. Time is not something I have in excess. I regularly prowl craigslist but I rarely see anything and what I do see is in poor condition. The Dunlap I just got for $5 is an exception but it was cheap new and did not improve with age. I wouldn't have paid more than $10 for it.
The result is that I'm probably stuck with eBay or a dealer of some type. $40 + shipping is not awful considering the time and gas saved.
I have a WR #4 and a #6c, so I can afford to wait for a deal.
-- Dan Rode
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle
Guest
If you find a good bailey pattern 5 with a relatively fresh chipbreaker, it literally will be the plane you use for the rest of your life for coarse work if you choose to do so, and you could measure your success in using it a lot by the number of irons you're able to expend before you are too old to use it.
It is, to me, the best designed metal plane ever made. Made good enough to do what it is supposed to do with ease, and inexpensive enough to be affordable when it was made. The cap iron, iron, lever cap setup in design in general is a thing of genius in that it will plane anything, sharpen easily and assemble and disassemble with no extra tools.
Given that it's probably going to cost about $40 to get a good one on ebay, it's worth spending the $40 on vs. $10 on a DIYer grade plane made back then. Millers falls 14s are an option - look for a red frog, and other considerations the same as above. Their castings are a little bit softer and easier to lap, and their adjusters a little bit cheaper and more sloppy, and the wood on some of them is a bit bulkier. Before I got control of myself, I bought 5 millers falls 9s and 14s for an average price of $10 off of ebay. You can still get them cheap sometimes.
Member
You would find nothing at those prices here in the Chicago area. Stanley planes at any price are pretty rare here except at MWTCA meets, where there are many at $40.-50. This is also 2014, not 1997. If you have access to $20.00 Stanley user planes, you might want to get some together and come here to sell them. You could easily double your money and there are many places to sell them.Originally Posted by Dan Hulbert
Moderator
If you want a decent user at fair prices, I'd buy on SMC. I think there's an active posting on classifieds right now, I believe.
If you want bargain prices with a little bit of risk and more clean up, then scour Craigslist.
Guest
I have a bedrock #5 that I bought from chicago for $65. It was a heck of a deal.
I got it from...
....
...
Mike brady!
It's the only iron 5 I've kept.
Member
The price with knowledgeable sellers is inversely proportionate to the time it will take to make it usable.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] "You don't have to give birth to someone to have a family." (Sandra Bullock)
Member
Having just spent some time searching for the same, I agree with $50 including shipping for a nice one. You can do a search of completed auctions and "sold" auctions under "advanced search" in ebay. This will tell you what they are selling for there. Of course you will always meet people who will tell you their stories about buying theirs for $20 for these in mint condition.... Do make sure the irons are ok. I got my brilliant #5 for a decent price, only to have it arrive with a pitted iron....
July 15 of this year I won a bid for, Stanley/Bailey no. 4 C Smooth Plane, Pat 1919, good usable condition, no problems with the wood $39.99. July 9 of this year I won,Stanley/Bailey No. 5 C "Sweetheart", very good & clean condition $51.00. July 9 of this year I won a bid for, 1910 Stanley/Bailey #6 C plane for $64.95.
I looked at #6 Stanley planes for some months loosing several bids of up to $63 for planes in nice usable condition. The plane I bought for $64.95 was a straight buy out not a real bid. I think the planes I bought are of the type the OP is thinking about so I thought this info. might help. I spent several months watching bids until I thought I knew about what the market was for those types of planes at that time. Someone willing to make lots of bids over a month or two might do a little better on the prices. All three of the planes I bought required no wood work or time consuming cleaning to make them usable. I suspect the 6 C market was a little competitive at that time but I did not care to spend more time and energy to save $10 - $15.
I often find the prices mentioned on these threads to be overly optimistic or the planes bought to require more work than I currently want to invest.
Last edited by Mike Holbrook; 08-20-2014 at 10:23 PM.
[OP]
Contributor
I bought a very nice 6c from another SMC member a few months ago. I took it apart, light cleaning and oil, flattened and sharpened the iron and put it right to work. 100 years old and it's back to workIt's the reason I'm now looking for a similar #4 and #5. In fact I have a WR #4 but I think I'll prefer a vintage smoother. The #5 is intended as a shooting plane as well as coarser general work. Eventually, I think I'll end up with 2 #5s one dedicated to shooting and one for for general purpose. We'll see.
-- Dan Rode
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle
Member
Oh, that's good.
I'm stealing it, and will claim I said it first.
Member
Drop Tom Bussey a line.
He rehabilitates older planes to a condition
rivaling today's "boutique" planes at a fraction
of the retail price.
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