Dating Stanley Bench Planes

Remember that a one hundred year old plane has probably gone through many hands and changing fortunes. Some were showered with attention by their former owners, others suffered the worst possible abuse. Some owners worked them so hard that they had to replace one or several parts. Some simply put the wrong bit in the wrong place, some customised their tools to suit their needs - the possibilities for change are endless. And after the poor old plane survived it all, it finally ends up in the hands of a tool collector or a tool dealer. And that's when the abuse really starts! Tall knobs become low knobs, kidney shaped lever caps age by a century to fit an early model, wire brushes rip the guts out of old brass and the final product ends up on eBay as super rare type eleven, best ever you won't find any better! Please try.... and make sure that ALL parts are correct for the vintage of your plane. I found that four categories seem sufficient to describe and roughly date a plane: Pre-lateral for any plane that has no side adjusting mechanism for the cutter, low knob, SW or tall knob (SW stands for Stanley Works but is usually called Sweetheart) and Late models for WW2 vintage and later. There are detailed type studies around if you want to know more ...... see down.

	Pre-Lateral to ca 1884			Low knob ca 1885 - 1919				Tall knob ca 1920-1933		war and post war models ca 1933-1970
Logos on cutters
from	1867 "A" logo	1872 "J" logo	1886 "P"		1892	1907 "T" logo	1910 "V" logo	1921	1923	1936
Lever Cap
Wood
major changes
Frog
Frog Receiver

Please don't  shower me with pseudo scientific mumbo-jumbo and type study wisdom from tool chat rooms -  this is simply a rough pictorial guide on how to date Stanley bench planes. If you want to learn more I suggest you get hold of  one or all of these books, at this time they are out of print and the odd copy that crops up will cost you about as much as a set of new tyres for your car:  Alvin Sellens "The Stanley Plane", Roger Smith "Patented Transitional & Metallic Planes in America" and John Walter "Antique & Collectible Stanley Tools". Alternatively, you give up your secure day job and become a full time tool dealer, buy and sell all those planes over and over until you can date them by touch in a cold, dark basement and when you survive all the countless mistakes you made along the way you can finally build your own web site and publish your very own thoughts. Deal?