Wood Plane Blades question

[Teej]

Are stanley and craftsman,seargent woodplane blades interchangable?

[Ken Vaughn]

Depends on the model and type -- I think most of the smoothing planes made by Sargent (correct spelling BTW) would take a Stanley iron OK. I don't own any Sargent smoothers, but in addition to about a dozen Stanley Baileys, I have two Fulton planes, a 4C and a 7C. These look very much like a type 10 Stanley Bailey plane. Fulton was a Sears house brand name, and I believe they were made by Sargent. They originally came with a thicker plane iron which was laminated steel on iron, about the same thickness of a Ron Hock replacement iron. A Stanley plane iron would fit, but would be a little more open at the mouth.

I have 4 Sargent block planes: a 607 low angle block, adjustable mouth (equivalent to Stanley 65 1/2) a 306 standard angle, adjustable mouth (equivalent to Stanley 9 1/2) a 307 standard angle, adjustable mouth (equivalent to Stanley 9 1/2) a 217 standard angle, fixed mouth (equivalent to Stanley 220)

Two of the above (306, 217) were sold by Sears and these used an iron with wider grooves and less of them, and the wide grooves were cut completely through the iron, not just on the back -- the depth adjustment screw had a round nib to engage the wide grooves. The 607 and the 307 are Sargent brand (not Sears by Sargent) and they used a standard block plane iron, 1 5/8" wide, narrow slot, narrow grooves on the back only. A Stanley iron would fit these.

True Sargent brand planes are probably a little better than Stanley -- they have a thicker casting, and in the case of the block planes, a better adjustment mechanism to open or close the mouth.

[Ramsey]

Yes and they ALL need to be thicker steel. I don't know if Ron Hock is still in business but he used to sell some great replacement blades. See if you can pick up one; it makes a BIG difference.

[Tom Veatch]

=>Yes and they ALL need to be thicker steel. I don't know if Ron Hock is =>still in business but he used to sell some great replacement blades. =>See if you can pick up one; it makes a BIG difference. =>

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Hock blades are available in a number of outlets. I just replaced the blade in my Type 11 Stanley #5 with a Hock A2 Cryogenic.

I haven't quite made up my mind whether it was a good move or not. Before I was cutting little curly shavings of wood. Now it seems more like I'm shaving off "fluffies". I suppose that's OK, except they tend to float around the shop and clog up the air conditioner filter.

Getting that blade made an excellent plane into a superb plane. Next step is to get one for the jointer and smoother. Tom Veatch Wichita, KS