All,
I picked up a Stanley #3 today up at the flee market. It appears to be in relatively good shape and probably around 100 years old. The thing that surprised me was the blade was positioned bevel up(like a block plane). I immediately thought the former owner didn’t know the correct position, but I decided to check in the hand plane book and latter on line at Blood and Gore. I have not been able find anything about positioning the blade.
What do you think? Was the former owner confused? or is there an option?
Replies
Bevel goes down, but I'm not surprised. I've seen lots of flea market bentch planes with the blade upside down.
FYI.. Martin Donnelly's antique tool auction is next weekend (Fri/Sat) in Nashua, NH
jk
http://www.mjdtools.com
John,
Thanks for the heads up on the auction this coming weekend. I don't have any planes for joinery...been using a 1" Sorby.
The #3 had the breaker attached to the wrong side also. To be honest, when I bought my block plane a few months ago the bevel up blade kinda through me...just was not aware its constructed that way. So I figured I better to show my stupidity and ask about the #3 and not assume. thanks
BG,
I buy a fair number of planes, and you'd be suprised to see how many are upside down. I'd say at least 1 in 5. I tried one upside down once. It kind of worked a little. I'm guessing that mostly people are cleaning up Grandpa's plane to get a few more bucks out of it, without paying attention to how it all goes back together.
Have fun with your plane. The #3 is pretty useful in my opinion.
Steve
Steve,
I'm looking forward to getting the # 3 tuned and using it for fine finishing. I've been using the # 7 to remove any burn marks on draw side bottoms and the #3 will be a big help there. My #4 has worked just great but I like to keep the mouth a bit open for heavier work.
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