151 Spokeshave blade depth adjustment nuts – type
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Hi Everyone
I have two Stanley 151 Spokeshave. One has quite beefy depth adjustment nuts with a gentle dome. The other has less substantial nuts with a shallower dome. Both are fitted with old sweetheart blades and are unlikely to have had non original other parts added to them.
Having no other spokeshaves to make comparison to, can I make the assumption that the beefier nuts are a pre-war design, with the less substantial nuts introduced during WW2 to save steel (similar to the lightening of plane bodies at the same time).
Any info I can get on this would be greatly appreciated.
I don’t know about the nuts, but saving metal on planes is exactly opposite of what happened in WWII.
plane body castings were substantially thicker during the war years, and are sought by some for that reason. My early war era #4 is about five ounces heavier than my 1896 type 8 model.
< edit> just weighed them. The early plane is 3 lbs 3.4 oz. the WWII plane is 3 lbs. 7.7 oz.See one fellow’s explanation why here:
It turns out there is a type study on 151’s.
It looks like early spokeshaves had flat knurled nuts, and there was a type change in the middle of the Sweetheart era.
For reference, I bought a 151 new in the 60’s and it has domed nuts.
Just a guess.. we’re both planes made in USA? Or is one English?
It also seems it was possible to get different adjuster nuts on the same spokeshave
Maybe it just depended on where they were sourced.
Thanks Larry
I appreciate your comments.
Both are marked on the back of the handles ‘MADE IN USA’, ‘No 151’, & ‘STANLEY’
They both have thumb tabs, and are cast as per current pattern.
See this loose type study which does not mention the nuts https://jeffpeachey.com/2008/05/05/towards-a-type-study-of-stanley-151-spokeshaves/I have to correct myself: The sweetheart stamp on the blade is the one used between 1922 & 1935 with the heart below the bottom line. Which makes the blades pre WW2. Because the bodies have the thumb tabs they are likely to have been bought with the blades.
I didnt know that the Stanley bench planes were ever thickened, but I think they where then thinned and lightened from the original weight after WW2. But the earlier blades suggest that the nuts were pre WW2 thickening.
Thinking about this now, its also important how these left the factory. Assembled or Unassembled. If they were only assembeled after export its likely that there was a lot of mixing up of different aged stock. If Record or other manufacturers use the same thread, these could even be assembeled using another manufacturers nuts.
I suppose that this question is not all that important, except that I am giving one away (call it a longterm loan). I’d like to keep the better/older one of the two.
Well, the sweetheart below the box coupledwith made In USA was stamped Between 1923 and 1932, though Lots of people think it took until 1935-1936 to use up inventory.
So both are Pre war.
If the cast body has casting marks numbers or letters, it could narrow it down further. But I don’t think there is a lot of time difference between them. Pick the one you like, or the one that has the most blade left and gift the other.
Hi Everyone
I bought another 151 for my friend, who was delighted to recieve it, and will have the opportunity to clean it up themselves.
Its a knock-off, with a red-cap iron (like the modern Stanleys). The casting of the body is really heavy, rough, and without any markings. All the threads look metric, and the studs for the adjuster nuts have an inverted hex on the end to insert or remove them. Even the cap iron is un-necessarily clunky and the back-bottom edge will need quite a bit of work to flatten. Once its cleaned and tuned it will do the job, adequately, but this is definately a beginners’ tool.
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