Something Different: Stanley No 3 Hand Plane
We stopped by an antique store in Ivor, Virginia to just browse. There on a table was this rusty Stanley No. 3 Bench Plane or smoothing plane. I had heard of the great Stanley planes, but it was lost on me as to why they are so great. Anyway, it cost me $10.00 and it was all rust, to be clear, I had to look really close to even see the any silver from bare metal.
How I dated it
It is a Bailey No. 3 which is cast into the body. It has one patent date on the body, U.S. PAT. APR-19-10. It does not have a raised ring cast into the body for the front knob. From just these simple checks, my plane is a Type 13 circa 1925-1928. Also, “During the 1920’s, Stanley applied a brightly colored decal on the left side of the totes on many of their planes.” My plane did not have the decal; however, the circle impression of where the sticker once was located on the tote.
A couple things did not make sense. First, the lever cap was smooth without a logo and as a side note the spring was missing. Its shape and the cam lever are almost identical to the one I got from eBay. The smooth lever cap looks like what is listed as Type 12 from 1919-1924.
The second issue is the blade iron logo. The logo on the iron is “STANLEY” “RULE & LEVEL CO.” “NEW BRITAIN CONN.” “U.S.A.” like in this example (my actual logo is the last picture below):
I know that Stanley Words and Stanley Rule and Level Company merged in 1920, same families but two different companies, and the logos on the irons changed. This is an older logo than 1925, so it could have been put in from an older plane, or it was just the stock being used until it ran out. Same situation with the lever cap.
In the end, an old hand plane with swapped out parts or a plane with original parts that I would date to 1924-1925. The pictures below are the plane in its current form. My $10 dollar investment creeped up to a total $30 to $35 to get a lever cap with a spring and logo plus the stickers a guy on eBay sells. I am pretty sure the lever cap logo is supposed to be orange, but I had red paint on hand, so red it is … and the sticker is just cool. It is definitely not a collector piece but is something I just intend to use when I need it.
Anyway, I guess I can say I have a Stanley for all it is worth. I have a Jorgensen No 4 plane which I have use several times. I was surprised that Jorgensen basically copied the design from 100+ years ago, but I guess if it works why change it. The Stanley is much lighter and the blade, which sharpened up well, is much thinner.
