No. 1 Stanley Plane-- Useful or Paper Weight?

[philip marcou]

Philip,

The small plane you show is very interesting to me and may be the just the right size for me to make as a first metal plane project. Would you mind providing some details such as sizes, bed angle, construction details, materials, etc?.

Is the main body made from a solid steel block with the plane blade bed pinned to the sides? I can not see any dovetail type construction from the picture. Looks like a steel U channel with everything else inset into it.

I assume you made this plane but, if not, whoever did make it did an excellent job.

Don

Don,
Yes, I make them and you can see more at HandPlane central here: http://www.handplane.com/Planemaker-....php?cat_id=12 . Go to the second and third last pages that have pictures of "mini" planes.
Very simple: the main body is the sole which is brass about 16mm thick to which the steel sides are rivetted. Subsequent ones are rivetted with brass so that the rivets are a feature. They are usually of bed angle 45 degrees, but I made various, including a scraper , chisel nose, rebater, low angle.
The decision to make came when someone produced the Crown Planes as seen in catalogues and asked for "up rated" versions-these don't have adjusters so I included this feature. Great fun to make- you can get results quickly.

[Don Rogers]

Philip,

Thank you for your help. I was not aware of this web site and appreciate the link. The pictures of your various planes provide a great deal of information and I am sure to be spending lots of time looking at them.

Your workmanship is top notch and I could only hope to do as well. Even so, I hope to start making one in the near future. It will be a good project for me.

Don