I think I've been had……
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26 February 2016 at 2:33 am #135033
I purchased a “stanley” No 6 plane from ebay the other day and was pretty excited at starting the restoration process. When I saw it in the pictures, it appeared to be a good plane, but once I received it, it seems …..cheap. Compared to the No 4 I purchased and have been using for a few months, it seems low quality.
It seems to weigh the same as my #4, and the metal for the sole and the frog feel more like aluminum or something else.
It has markings on the iron that say stanley, but I’m wondering if those are fake as well.
Going forward, is there any references that may indicate what to look for when purchasing stanley planes? I have tried looking online for some information, but haven’t really found anything very useful.
26 February 2016 at 2:50 am #135038Don’t be too disheartened your new at this you must expect to get burnt along the way how else will you learn, you must see that as a positive. If you know how to restore it correctly which doesn’t mean just cleaning the rust off of it, it will function decently. Unfortunately most eBay sellers are not knowledgeable people, they are just a seller like most wholesalers & retailers out there they only enough what their told by their suppliers which is very limited but enough just to sell their products. It is up to you as a buyer to do the research to make an informed decision or blindly dive in with just the information you get from the seller.
The best planes out there are pre WWII, the reason being the world was at war and therefore production costs had to be cut war bonds had to be raised. Again don’t to be disheartened Paul did a blog recently on fixing up cheaper low quality models and they turned out great.
If the seller gave a wrong description you can always return it & most of them accept returns anyway. If a lot of work needs to be done to it you can convert it to a scrub plane, the sole doesn’t need to be flat at all for that. Just note; just because it say’s “Made in England” does not mean it’s a quality pre WWII plane and if it does say Stanley be rest assured it is. This isn’t hand bags and watches were companies will go out of their to make knock offs.
Good luck in your next purchase
26 February 2016 at 3:47 am #135046This link should help.
http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan0a.html26 February 2016 at 4:23 am #135047@Salko: I will try to get it restored as best as I can. Initial inspection showed that the sole wasn’t warped and overall seemed straight. I’ll be more mindful and do some more research before i jump on a deal I come across. I didn’t lose too much money, so I don’t feel too bad. I was just a little disappointed. Description was pretty vague, and no claims of originality were made of any sort. I’ve already started the rust removal so I’ll just keep it and see how well it turns out.
@Robert Fowler: Thanks for the link.26 February 2016 at 12:27 pm #135048There was a no.4 record on sale on eBay the seller wrote looks great for a vintage plane selling for $99 I think but I knew that plane was built in 1994 onwards and that isn’t vintage at all. When I wrote that to the seller his response was “boo hoo” that’s the kind of monkey’s that exist on eBay.
That link Robert posted will you get you started but unless you want to start collecting planes only research what you want to buy before buying.
Have a look at, http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan1.htm where he describes Stanley’s aluminum planes. You might search around some more because it sounds like the plane may not be a great idea for actually doing woodworking, but might have enough value to resell it for what you paid. Or, maybe you can still send it back? In any case, Stanley really did make aluminum planes (aluminium ones, too).
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