I read the thread about how you can't find things at flea mkts and yard sales and since it was a nice day I went for a drive. I found a couple of planes, a #4 and a #5, but I don't know what to make of them. The #4 has a real strange adjuster on it, not like the ones that I have on the rest of my planes. It's kind of a screw rather than a knob and it runs a doohickey that slides the blade front to back rather than moving a lever like on my Stanleys.
The #5 is more like a Stanley, at least the way it works is, but it has L. Bailey's Patent stamped in weird places, like inside the adjuster nut and on the chip breaker. It doesn't have any patent dates on the plane, just on the knob and breaker, the lettering is grungy so it's hard to read, but it looks like 1858 and 1867. The chip breaker has the 1867 number on it. It looks OK, the japanning is nearly all there, and there aren't any chips or chunks missing, no cracks, except the top, rear horn of the tote is knocked off. It's got a weird short little knob on it made out of some real pretty wood, and the weirdest arch to the back of the bed where the frog bolts down.
The #4 cost me $22 and the #5 cost me $18. I don't know what to think about them. Maybe I'll be able to see what they look like better after I soak them in some ammonia and sand them down. That should get the brown crud off them so I can see what they look like. I can always make users out of them, what the heck, they were cheap.
Dave in Fairfax