The plane...
James Watriss
>Can't tell for sure if it's a stanley, a union, a sargent... or something else. It's an old transitional plane, though, and they're fairly common, so there's not much value to worry about. There are small groups of tool collectors who regularly burn them in the hopes that someday there will be few enough of them left that the ones they have will have value.
As for replacing the block, I think if you're going for a user-quality plane, there are other, much better options to consider. Like not replacing the block. I messed around with trannies for a while, (the planes, the planes!) and found a few things for myself:
-The wood is beech, usually. It's what Clark and Williams use for their own wooden planes, and it's the traditional wood of many planemakers, because the cellular structure of the wood ensures that it will move evenly and regularly, so the body will generally be pretty stable. If you want to use the plane, you will want it to be stable-bodied. Maple isn't the most stable thing in the world. Charry's handsome, and a little more stable, but still... I think if you compare freshly milled new cherry or maple to a block of beech that's been aged for 100 years, you'll find the beech to be more worthwhile. And it's already drilled, and chopped. Give it a light sanding, wax it up with something nice, and tell people that it's just showing character from having been used. Or get another, better tranny from ebay (don't spend too much) and fix it up. If aesthetics are really such a concern, you're better off lavishing your attentions on a plane in better condition.
-I personally chopped a huge throat out of mine, and patched it back up with a thin piece of rosewood. The general idea was to give the shavings a place to collect, because otherwise, the shavings would curl very tightly and jam in the throat, and I'd have to take everything apart to clear the clog. The other advantage of patching it up like this is that you can close the throat back up and get a better working plane out of the deal.
There's nothing quite like laying a tranny down and finding out that they won't let anything into their throat. Because then you know, regardless of how tightly you grab the knob, they're not going to perform for you until you clean them out from the other side.
-In the end, you can get them to work pretty decently, but like a lot of other things, you can fettle to your heart's content, and for quite some time, if you're not careful. There's a lot you can do to these things. Open the throat, patch. Fix up the blade, or replace it. Fix up the chip-breaker, or replace it. The bed isn't always perfectly flat, which can affect the stability of the lateral adjustment. It's fixable, but it's another thing to do. Fix handles, or make new ones... These planes are very seductive to new woodworkers because of the amount of wood involved that can be replaced. Then it's a custom tool, and you can day dream about telling people "Oh, yes, it's mine. I rebuilt it, and made all the new pieces from scratch. Yes, it is rather attractive, don't you think?" etc, etc. They do work, but it takes some effort. Sometimes a lot of effort.
I managed to get mine to the point where I was able to flatten my small work bench with it, but it still needs work. Since then I've discovered the joys of proper tuning of old Metal Stanleys. and much more recently, of high-end, low-angle, big-money, no-hassle jack planes, and it's really cast a shadow over a lot of the other planes on my shelves. :-/
-Way back when (last spring) I got started on an article that I was going to submit in here on how I modified some of mine. I started with pictures of a transitional plane with the block sawn in half lengthwise so you can see the throat in cross-section, to understand what I was talking about, and I have two different planes (a jack and a jointer) to perform these modifications on. I just haven't finished the actual modifications yet. :P To assist in the work, I tried to order a set of sequential, matched Round Tuits, specifically for those planes. But Lee Valley was back-ordered, and won't get them in 'til some time in November. Lie Nielsen's are still in development, though I'm told that someone in here got their grubby mitts one of the limited pre-production sets. Apparently they are, in fact, some of the best Round Tuits being made at the current time, and production models will be out in time for Easter. They think.
One of these days, those round tuits will be MINE!!!
Feel free to email with more questions on these planes if you want.
