Another find: Stanley Baley #5

[Aubrey Kloppers]

Hi Guys
After working with the Store find: Stanley Baley #3 for a bit, I found a #5. Price as is R450 ($33). It is in quite good nick and I can't wait to clean it up and make some "paper'

Plane 1.JPG
Iron and Lever Cap.JPG
Blade in Mouth.JPG

[Andrew Pitonyak]

nice..... I expect an update on how it works after you clean it up a bit.

[Jim Koepke]

Nice find, it looks like the blade has more camber than one would want for "making paper."

My little trick with young'uns who know not of planes is to have a board ready in a vise and tell them if they write their name on the edge of the board I will put it in my pocket. Of course they think it will be the whole board until a swipe of the plane removes their name and is put in my pocket.

They always want the shaving and think "it is so cool." If there are a lot of kids watching they will each insist on you doing one for them.

jtk

[Stew Denton]

Jim,

That is absolutely a neat idea. I have to get set up so I can do that with my grandkids.

Thanks,

Stew

[Bill Houghton]

That's cute, Jim. Very clever.

[lowell holmes]

You can find replacement irons on line if not at Lowes. It helps to have multiple irons sharpened to do scrubbing as well as leveling.

I have a narrow iron I bought at Lowes sharpened to scrub. It is for my #3 Baily. It makes a decent scrub plane.

[Mike Baker 2]

Sweet! My #5C is my favorite bench plane, barr none.

vX5oI98.jpg

[lowell holmes]

I wonder how many of you have a no. 5 1/2 Bailey. I have one that is 14 1/2" x 2 3/4". I use more than I use my #6 which is 18"X 3". I actually will find myself
using the 5 1/2 instead of my 607 Bedrock. I can't explain why, I just seem to like it better.

[Jim Koepke]

I wonder how many of you have a no. 5 1/2 Bailey. I have one that is 14 1/2" x 2 3/4". I use more than I use my #6 which is 18"X 3". I actually will find myself
using the 5 1/2 instead of my 607 Bedrock. I can't explain why, I just seem to like it better.

If yours was made before ~1939 it has a 2-1/4" blade which would be slightly easier to push than the 2-3/8" blade of the #6.

My #5-1/2 has been getting more use of late. Most of the time a #6 would be used as a short jointer.

It came to me that my #5-1/2 was in an awkward position to grab. Some of the planes were switched around to make the #5-1/2 more accessible. Turns out its shelf was a bit on the short side for the #6 which is likely why it was in an out of the way place.

jtk

[Rick Malakoff]

Let me ad this, I have a Bailey 5 1/2 C that measures 15 7/8 x 3'' with a 2 3/8'' iron and no patent dates. I've had it for 30 years when I bought I had no clue as to what it was but for 15$ could not pass it up even without the iron which I found at the local lumberyard for another 5$. Still not sure about its age but I think it's 1938-1958.

Rick

[Aubrey Kloppers]

I decided, after some measuring, not to do anything physically to the plane as the entire thing was very square. I took to a wire brush and cleaned it up (removing some rust of the blade and chipper) and sharpened the blade. The blade came quite sharp.

Note: The blade was in quite a state, all crooked and skew, so I took some 100 grid sandpaper to it (on glass) until the entire thing was flat. Then took it through 240/400/600/1000 grid.

Question: Is it just me or can anyone create a burr on the blade and get it quite sharp just on 100 grid paper? Granted, the 100 grid does start breaking down, becoming something more like a 200-300 grid, but to get a burr...?

[Jim Koepke]

Question: Is it just me or can anyone create a burr on the blade and get it quite sharp just on 100 grid paper? Granted, the 100 grid does start breaking down, becoming something more like a 200-300 grid, but to get a burr...?

Yes, the coarser the abrasive the easier it is to raise a burr.

Forgot to include that the blade will be sharp, but it will not leave a smooth edge in use. It will leave a surface pretty much to match the roughness of the abrasive used to create the edge. Hope that makes sense.

jtk

[Aubrey Kloppers]

Yes, the coarser the abrasive the easier it is to raise a burr.

Forgot to include that the blade will be sharp, but it will not leave a smooth edge in use. It will leave a surface pretty much to match the roughness of the abrasive used to create the edge. Hope that makes sense.

jtk

Thank you Jim. It does make sense...