Stanley Bench Planes: Replacing New Lever Caps with Old
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Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Tools and Tool Maintenance/Restoration / Stanley Bench Planes: Replacing New Lever Caps with Old
Tagged: Keyhole, Kidney, Lever cap, sweetheart
Has anyone had any problems switching the newer “Kidney hole” lever caps with the older “keyhole” lever caps. I strongly prefer the older style but don’t want to pay the “Sweetheart Premium” for the older planes.
My favorite style is the pre 1920 planes with the low knobs. They just look and feel right to me.
Thanks,
John
Good question, truthfully I never thought much about it as I like to keep my planes as close to original as I can. I also prefer the pear shaped slot as opposed to the kidney shape, I only have 1 or 2 with the kidney slot the rest are the older pear style any way’s.
I will check this weekend when I get back in the shop to see if they are interchangeable which I have a feeling they are but not 100% sure.
Steve
Steve,
I’ve got a few I can check but with 19 variations I still wouldn’t know if ALL of them were swapable. Seems reasonable but….
I’ve got a couple of Sweetheart 5s I wouldn’t mix and match parts on for anything. But the newer ones I don’t have any problems with mixing and matching to get what I’m after.
I really do like the keyhole/pear shape better. The kidney one tends to move the cutter sideways on me but the straight one just snap into place.