I am looking for a #7 or #8 in decent usable condition.
I kick myself because last weekend my wife and I went on a little vacation. At a antique shop I found a #8 for $65.00 and a #7 for $45.00. I should have bought them then but I didn't.
If someone has a #7 or #8 that they are willing to sell in good condition for something around that price let me know.
Thanks.
This has to be a troll! :-)
Ok here is something you may want to look at. you can buy them new here for not much more.
anywhere near as good as old Stanleys.
He would be better served by going to the Oldtools group and looking for "FMM" postings. "FMM" stand for Flea Market Monday, and it simply means that on the first Monday of any month, participants are allowed to advertise old tools for sale. (I assume they still have FMM; it's been a while since I followed them closely.)
The OP can go to the Oldtools archive at:
Chuck Vance
Chuck,
I know you don't want a flame war and I don't either but I disagree with your comments concerning Anant planes.
American Woodworker back in early 1996 (pre-Readers Digest days) did a comparison of smoothers and rated the Anant a "Best Value" for the money. My own personal experience with Anant began in 2000 when a co-worker gave me an Anant 78 duplex rabbet plane which is a knockoff of the Stanley 78. I liked the fact that it had a double-armed fence instead of the single arm fence the Stanley came with. It tuned up nicely and is one of my users.
As for smoothers, I have an Anant #4. The casting quality is good, it does have an adjustable frog and a vertical adjuster. I would put it on par with a Stanley made post world war II before they completely went to pot. The blade leaves something to be desired but can be sharpened to produce fine shavings. I eventually replaced mine with a Hock. A tuned Anant with a hock blade will put you in the clover for way less than a Clifton, Lee Valley, Lie-Nielsen and the knowledge one acquires in tuning the Anant will not be wasted.
I have close to 50 other planes which include older Stanley's and some new Knight wood planes. I would stack my tuned Anant planes against the older ones. I believe it is easier for a newbie to purchase a new plane which he/she knows is complete and undamaged as a way to get his/her feet wet in tuning a plane. Once the mechanics of planing and tuning are learned, it is easier to know what you've just picked up at a flea market or evaluate what you've seen on eBay. On the other hand, I wouldn't walk into the local big box and purchase a current production Stanley #4 or into Sears and buy a plane and expect it to become a user no matter how much work was done to it. Those planes are junk.
Okay, I've now stepped off the soapbox. Thanks for listening and feel free to disagree its all only my two cents!
Fair enough. I was expecting my comment would draw some reaction. :-)
No argument that the tuning experience will be good. However, for less than the price of an Anant, you should be able to get a pre-war Stanley that would tune up to be a superior plane without necessarily upgrading to a Hock. And the original poster was inquiring about older Stanleys when the subject of Anants came up.
But to me it sounds like you are very experienced with tuning and using planes. I'm not saying that you couldn't get an Anant to perform well, but would a newbie really be expected to get it up to the level of an older Stanley?
We definitely agree on that point. :-) I bought a Stanley "contractor grade" #4 6 or 7 years ago and despite replacing the factory iron with a Hock, lapping the sole, filing the frog, etc., etc., I was unable to get the darned thing to work decently. And besides all of that, if I wanted to use it, I would have had to replace the plastic knob and tote with wood. (No, CW, I don't want to hear how manly you are, and how anyone who prefers wood over plastic is a wimp.)
It currently serves as an oversized paperweight. :-}
On to your point about buying a complete plane and learning to tune it before moving on to getting older planes -- I would recommend that someone who's in the market for a plane contact Patrick Leach or Tom Bruce or one of the other reputable tool dealers with an online presence. Tell them you are looking for a decent pre-war user, not a collectable. That way, you are learning to tune a plane that came from an era when planes were made to be used by folks who depended on them for their livelihood.
Otherwise, I would recommend they just save up some extra pennies and get a Lee Valley/Veritas. It is in a medium price range for (good) planes currently being made, and with my recent experience with their tools, I can see that I will be buying more of them in the future (and they are continually expanding their line). So unless someone is simply into older planes for their aesthetic value, they might be better off to get a LV plane and learn on that.
You make a good argument, and I think we agree on all of the basic concepts (learning to tune a plane, the need to upgrade to a Hock, that current Stanleys are crap :-). I just wanted to go on record (no pun intended) to say that buying an Anant because it is just about as cheap as an older Stanley could turn out to be false economy.
Chuck Vance
Yoh guys.
I am the original poster and I want to thank everyone for pitching in and helping.
I appreciated the link to the Anant plane web site. I may very well order one.
My needs are pretty simple. I am an unemployeed software engineer. It has been two years now. It really sucks out here in Portland. I have some oak flooring that I pulled up a couple of years ago when I replaced my wood entry way with tile. My wife has this old brass and glass makeup table she uses every moring and it is now about 15 years old. In my spare time, of which I have plenty, I have been able to do lots of projects around the house. A couple of built in bookcases, shelves, several things. Anyway the wife wants me to make her a wooden vanity to replace the brass and glass thing. A year ago I remodeled a friends basement. I wass bored and needed something to do so I completely finished his 1300 sq ft basement. I built 3 rooms, a bath, insulated, hung sheetrock, baseboards, doors, trim, windows,,,,,,everything. He gave me a Dewalt planer. Oh and I charged him two beers a day. He is my best friend so it was basically just something to keep me buisy.
Anyway, I have a planer and tried to glue up some of the oak and it just really needed jointing to get a good strong joint. So I need to find a plane suitable for jointing. It doesn't need to be antique. I just happen to find a couple at an antique store at a good price that I wish I had bought. The main criteria is it has to be inexpensive and usable. I have an old stanley #4 but it is just two short for jointing. No one around here has bigger ones that are reasonable priced.
It seems that antique shops are the only places that have used planes. They aren't really antiques but it seems to be the only place.
This weekend there is gong to be a big antique show in town. My wife and I will be going and I will be looking for planes. If I find one in the right price range, under $70.00, then I will get it. If not I will call the antique store in the little town where I found those and ask them if they still have them. If so I will have them mail/ship them to me. If they are gone I will probably get one of the Anant.
Anyway thanks for all the suggestions. And no this isn't a troll like one poster suggested. If I end up ordering those two jointing planes I will be trying them out, picking the one that I like the best and re- selling the other. Keep an eye out. I may post it here.
I've been buying older Stanley's, Dunlap's and Fulton's and tuning them up to use. I replaced some of the irons with Hocks, though I think I can salvage some of the older ones. I bought some Hock chipbreakers but couldn't get them to allow the shavings to exit. What do you guys do for that? I love the Hock irons btw.
KY
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I use the Clifton breaker with Hock irons in my Bedrocks. I can put the irons and breakers in my Baileys also. I use my 604 and 607 Bedrock's mostly. :-)
My 604 set up like I described does a great job. I've even gotten to where I can smooth the face on a board with out leaving a groove from the corner of the iron (after Paul Sellers showed me how to hone the iron).
I can get full width, translucent shavings with all of the planes, but it is really impressive to see the 607 work. When I set the iron progressively finer as I work the board, it will produce a straighter edge than my power jointer will.
LOL ok but how do you deal with the fact that the iron and chipbreaker are thicker than the original? Do you enlarge the mouth? Am in a quandary
Yes, you need to enlarge the mouth to use some of the thicker blades and chipbreakers in old planes. To summarize a method someone conveyed to me on this newsgroup, you get a silicon carbide marking tool and using a straight edge scribe a line 1/32-1/16" over from the front edge of the current mouth. Then using a small single cut mill file (I found one at a hobby shop), file the mouth until you meet the line. Then test the blade and chipbreaker. If the mouth is still too small repeat and enlarge the mouth a little more. I was nervous doing this with my (to me) precious old Stanley Sweetheart #7 that I purchased on eBay, but it was easy and I was able to fit a Clifton chipbreaker and blade to this nice old plane. Works great!
Thanks, is there any benefit to the heavier chipbreakers over the old cap irons? I bought mine just because of the rust on the old cap iron.
I don't have knowledge of the Hock breakers, but the Clifton breakers perform better with finer shavings than the Stanley breakers. I never have a chip lodge under the Clifton breakers. The Clifton breaker is a two piece breaker that allows you to hone the iron without removing the bolt and breaker.
I have never had to enlarge the throat on a plane to use a Hock iron. I did adjust the frog to accept the iron though. I set my irons really fine and I'm not aware that the breaker extends through the throat.
I've used the irons and breakers on Baileys as well as the Bedrocks.
thanks, no the breaker don't go thru the mouth, but it clogs it up pretty quick.
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