Stanley #71: Made in USA or Eng., does it matter?

Re: Stanley #71: Made in USA or Eng., does it matt

Jack Guzman from Maine

>The 71 is a very simple tool. I don't think it makes any difference who makes it.Some people even make their own routers.---Jack

It's a simple plane...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>The England ones would be O.K. I imagine. I would be concerned about the cutters quality. It would be easy fix any problems with the plane it's self.

Scott who has a English 79 that works well enough...

Re: It's a simple plane...

John Horobin

>The UK made ones seem good quality to me and I've always managed to get a sharp edge on the cutters. I don't think it makes a lot of difference with this plane. I prefer the Record one myself which is not plated on the sole.

John

Re: It's a simple plane...

Steve Denvir

>Patrick Leach always makes noise about how much better the U.S versions are than their English counterparts, and I'm hesitant to mess with the author of Blood and Gore, but I really doubt there's an appreciable difference. I think it may be a collector thing. U.S. versions almost always do better on ebay. Don't know why.

Re: It's a simple plane...

paul womack

>Patrick Leach always makes noise about how much better the U.S versions are than their English counterparts,

He's right, but for the wrong reason. The older ones are better than the newer ones, and the newer ones were made in England.

If you happen to find an old English Stanley (unlikely in the USA) they're rather good.

Record (AFAIK) predate Stanley in the UK, and their 1930's tools are very good indeed. Record's later tools, just like Stanley's are less good.

Just to say; it ain't the country, it's the period that matters.

BugBear

My British No. 78

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>is quite good - in particular, the original iron is far better, thicker, and smoother than the replacement I bought before realizing that I was going to be getting an iron too.

Re: My British No. 78

John Horobin

>I've got one or two English war time Stanley planes which I think are better made than the US equivalents with even thicker castings than the type 17's.

John