Buying A Plane

[Moreau]

hey guys,

I saw a few used planes for sale, one was in good condition and looked very similar to this

plane

It was a stanley. looked good, blade was sharp. what should i look for in buying one, and about how much should i be looking to spend? thanks

[Dugz Ink]

This is what I look for: "Made in _______"

If it says USA or Germany, chances are it's good steel.

If it says anything about China, Taiwan, etc. don't waste your money.

Some of the Stanley stuff says:

Assembled in England

Parts manufactered in China

Read the fine print!

It's better to spend $50 on a plane that will last 50 years than $20 on a plane that never works properly.

D~s

[ibreakemineedtobuildem]

Footprint planes are nice and affordable.They are made in England from Sheffield steel.If you're in Canada,HomeHardware stores sell some Footprint planes too.

[Setch]

You can also look in charity shops or flea markets. My dad found me a Sargent 404 (no.5 Jackplane) in a charity shop for less cash than a couple of beers - a couple of hours cleaning, tuning and sharpening and it's better than 95% of the new planes on the market. It was made between WWI and II and is a stanley clone, of equal quality, but less collectable - the iron is 50% thickner than the one in my modern stanley smoothing plane!

Apparently the charity shops get a lot of tools in, but they move pretty fast, so it's worth checking regularly.

[johnsilver]

Whereever I buy a plane, even new, I make sure the sole plate is flat or at least so very nearly flat that some light touch up will be sufficient to flatten the sole plate. If it ain't flat, it won't work well. I check plane sole plates with my precision straight edge. Also, it was a bonus if the plane iron you saw was already sharp but that won't last long. The quality of the steel is more important than the sharpness when purchased. Good luck.