First plane restoration - Bailey no 4

[Shawn Christ]

I'm new to hand planes. Found this Stanley Bailey no 4 at a garage/estate sale last week for $2. According to this site it appears to be a type 11 made between 1910-1918, and in good shape as far as I can tell. Got it cleaned up, stripped the obnoxious red paint and refinished the knob and tote, and removed the rust with Evaporust. Decided to leave the japanning as-is, and gave it a light coat of wax. A fun project. Still working on a sharpening system so I haven't honed the iron yet to see how she works. A question -- what are the 2 screws for on the body... attachments?

[Jim Koepke]

A 2 buck plane? Rhymes with "you suck."

Actually that is a greeting of, "why couldn't that have been my deal?" There will be a lot of jealous folks after today. I've paid that much for junkers to get the parts.

Even with the added hardware on the side it is a good deal and a great plane. The screws may have been a way to attach a piece for a guide to keep the plane at a right angle to a face. It may dilute the collector value of the plane, but a type 11 is considered to be the gold standard of Stanley/Bailey planes.

The painted handles is often a sign of this being used in a production shop or other setting where people wanted to have their tools easily recognizable.

jtk

[Shawn Christ]

Wow, thanks for the great info Jim. Didn't realize this would be gloat-worthy. I should have bought a lottery ticket last week too.

[Dave Parkis]

I think Jim is right. That appears to be something a previous owner added to use a fence. Those are great planes and you even got the original iron that looks like it has a lot of life left in it. Nice find and nice job restoring it.

[Bill White]

OK! OK! I'll give ya $10.00 for a tried and true #4.
Probably the best all purpose plane ever.
Bill

[George Sanders]

Nice job on the restoration. You got a good user to boot.

[Shawn Christ]

Upon further inspection I noticed the blade is bent just above the cap iron on one side. Must have been dropped at one point. Suggestions on if the blade is still usable? The adjusting lever drags on that side.

[Robert Engel]

If it works don't worry about it.

I would only say IF that blade was in the plane and IF it was dropped, you need to throughly check the frog for fractures.

You didn't mention whether you checked the sole for flatness, but thats a necessary step.

[Shawn Christ]

Sole is flat but still need to lap it. Didn't see any fractures on the frog, just a tiny chip on a front corner.

[steven c newman]

The bend can just be peaned back to straight, not really that hard to do. Look like the lateral lever took most of the hit. Might a bit tricky to straighten that out.

Flat metal surface, bent side up. Tap a few times right on the worst of the hump in the iron, check for straightness as you go.

As for that lateral lever......visegrip applied to where the lever pivots, right on the pin, NOT on the frog. Use a second pair to slowly twist the end of the lever back to where it belongs. Grip the first pair to help. hand strength only.

[Shawn Christ]

I'll give that a shot, thanks.

[Jim Koepke]

An old blade like that is likely still from the time they were laminated. If not, it is likely only hardened at the business end. I have put them in a vise and worked them back to straight using a crescent wrench.

jtk

[Stew Denton]

Hi Shawn,

Really nice job on the plane, and the plane looks to be in really nice shape now. Looking at the before pictures, I am surprised that the after pictures seen to show almost no pitting....very nice indeed!

Jim gave you the traditional "great job" greeting for this site for someone who gets an incredible buy on something. It is in his second sentence in the first paragraph of his first post on your plane. It is the statement that rimes with "2 buck" as he mentioned. It is not an insult, on this site it is a very high compliment. To his comment I say "Here, Here!, Second the Motion!"

Stew