Yee-haw! Gloatable weekend, and question *LINK*
Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA
>The hits just keep coming - we went garage saling this morning, and I found some more nice rust.
Question first: one item ($2) is a 4C smoother. I thought it was a generic plane when I got it, but a little cleaning of grunge showed "Stanley" and a patent date across the top of the iron - looked oldish. I cleaned it up enough, and used Jay Sutherland's plane dating flowchart for the first time - it appears it's a Type 5, dating from 1885-1888. This is in user shape, although the japanning's pretty intact. Are these valuable tools, or did I just get another nice user?
Other items: a late-model No. 71 router (now up to four, if you could the broken one - why did it take me well over 20 years to find my first, but now I've found four in just a few years?), a 60-1/2 block plane that I hardly need but liked the price, a nice bar clamp for free, and some Yankee screwdriver bits. Also, for my dark, electron-eating side, a Darra James cabinet saw, Model 100, with a 1.5hp motor, mostly complete at a good price, to replace my funky Rockwell. The saw is sitting in the truck while I figure out how to move it into the shop - it took three of us to get it in the truck!
plane dating flowchart