Compared restoring a $50 Stanley plane vs a $5 rusty one from a garage sale

I spent 6 hours on a fancy No. 5 plane I bought online, sanding and oiling, and it still chattered. Then I grabbed a beat-up old one for $5 at a garage sale in Des Moines, with a chipped blade and 50 years of grime. After 20 minutes with a cheap sharpening stone and some kerosene, it cut like butter. The difference was the steel quality - older planes have harder steel that holds an edge way better. Anyone else find that the junk stuff outworks the new stuff in this hobby?

3 comments

3 Comments

rileyl9811d agoMost Upvoted

I still chattered" is a good way to put it, but I gotta gently push back on the "newer planes have softer steel" thing. That's mostly true for the cheap off-brand stuff, but there were plenty of old planes made with garbage pot metal too, especially after the 1940s. It's more about the manufacturer and the era than just "old vs new." A modern Lie-Nielsen or Veritas plane will stomp just about any rusty flea market find in terms of steel quality, but yeah, a random $5 garage sale find could be incredible if it's a pre-WWII Stanley from their golden years. That steel really does hold an edge better than the mass-produced stuff you get from hardware stores today.

the_jessica11d ago

Jumping off what @rileyl98 said about Lie-Nielsen and Veritas, those companies are basically the gold standard now because they use A2 or O1 tool steel, which is way harder than what you'd find in a lot of old Stanleys. But here's the deal, a vintage Stanley from the 1920s with that thick iron and the right heat treat can still compete, it's just a different feel. Once you get into the 1950s and later, Stanley started cutting corners, using thinner irons and cheaper steel to save money, so you gotta be picky. A pre-war Bedrock or a Sweetheart era plane is the one you really want if you're digging through old boxes.

the_phoenix11d ago

Alright, I used to be one of those people who thought old Stanley planes were basically magic and new ones were all overpriced hype, but hearing @rileyl98 break it down like that actually got me. I was totally sleeping on the fact that the real enemy is post-war corner cutting, not age itself.