The first choice of most budget-conscious woodworkers is a Bailey style smoothing plane. Several manufactures of the past made good versions of these planes in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, especially Stanley. They made millions of Bailey style smoothing planes. Most people opt for a number 4 size plane (pictured above). If your hands are a bit smaller, then a number 3 works great (pictured below). I personally found the 7 to be quite useful when I find I need it, which isn’t often, but when I do, I like having it. It’s a quite old Ohio Tools plane, might be pre-1900 even, brought home to Finland by someone returning from the US. And if that isn’t enough you can lastly buy a toothed iron dedicated for scrubbing. These toothed irons are especially designed for flattening difficult, figured wood. I started a document on one of my computers for notes I keep on plane information. My issue is I have several work laptops, a few personal laptops and travel a lot so keeping the notes in one place is a challenge. I figured this way, I could get to them from anywhere, including my phone when looking at buying a plane, and maybe others would find the information useful as well. I’ll try to break up the information into logical units as separate blogs in this series. Is there any other physical difference that makes a No.4 more useful for smoothing, other than it's smaller size and weight making it easier to handle?

As you can see, the design is different than the normal bench planes; the bevel of the iron faces upward rather than downward. I touched on this earlier. Also, the bed of the plane sits at a lower angle. The cool thing about this type of plane is that it can be used in multiple configurations in addition to the main use as a low angle plane. For those who don’t know, a low angle plane is best used for handplaning end grain, like if you’re making an end grain cutting board, for example. The iron comes sharpened from the factory at a 25 degree angle. Add that to the 12 degree milled bed, for an effective low angle of 37 degrees. But you can also buy a second iron and sharpen it at around 35 degrees, and it’ll give you an effective planing angle of around 45 degrees, which is the same as a traditional bench plane. This is great for general purpose handplaning. And if you planned on handplaning figured wood, you could buy a third iron and sharpen it at around 50 degrees, which would give you an effective high angle of around 62 degrees. Lie-Nielsen also sells exceptional smoothing planes, also in the No. 4 size (pictured above) and the No. 4-1/2 size. And while their smoothing planes have a bit more attention to manufacturing detail, in my side-by-side test of a brand new Lie-Nielsen smoothing plane with a brand new WoodRiver smoothing plane I didn’t find the Lie-Nielsen smoothing plane to give superior results on the wood. Neither brand gave great results right out of the box, but after I honed the two planes’ irons at the same time, I did a side-by-side comparison and found them to both cut nice shavings and leave a very smooth surface. The Lie-Nielsen planes seem to have a smoother depth adjuster wheel. The plane iron may also be ground slight differently in shape (as opposed to angle)... but yes, those are the largest differences. They do affect how the plane is used.Stanley Type 15 Handplanes date 1931-1932. They remove all patent info on the bottom casting. “BAILEY” is now cast behind the knob toward the rib, and the number is directly in front of the knob. Stanley Type 8 Handplanes date from 1899-1902. The “7-24-88” is the only patent date found on the lateral adjustment lever, and “STANLEY” is still there. The “S” casting marks are eliminated and replaced with “B.” I have also found I never really touch the frog on my smoother planes, I always set it as open as i can get it, as close as I have the chip breaker set, it won’t work otherwise and clogs up the mouth. With the 5 and 7 it’s another matter.

So, on the one hand, no we don’t need longer planes for our general needs, but I do own every plane in the bench plane category and those by different makers like Stanley and Record. Because at the Castle workshop I don’t use machines normally associated with the conversion process, I tend to use longer planes. Mostly I can rely on my No5 and No 5 1/2. I can do everything with a No4, but sometimes I like the extra length and the extra weight too.

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Stanley Type 14 Handplanes date 1929-1930. It is from the USA and is now cast into the bed at the toe. A raised ring is cast into the bed to act as a receiver for the knob, and it prevents the splitting of the knob. The chances of splitting are high due to the raised ring and greater leverage capable of being placed on them than on the low knobs. Like many a passionate woodworker, I have for years been inflicted with a sentimental love for the Stanley Bailey hand planes. As a result, I own a few and these good old Leonard Bailey designs are the seed of many hand plane designs today. So many manufacturers have based their own designs on the Bailey hand plane. Sadly some manufacturers have plagiarized the Leonard Bailey patents and with varying degrees of success. With regard to longer planes, these planes have a place in the workshop of any enthusiast. In fact, this week I have been prototyping a new bar stool design which will be made from hardwood for a book I am working on. The No 6 plane was the plane I used mostly because I needed elements to be trued as perfectly as possible. I use my components from the prototypes I make as reference pieces to develop the pieces for actual production whether this is for single production or batch production by machine methods. If you prefer a heavier smoothing plane to give more power to your planing, then a number 4-1/2 size smoothing plane is ideal (pictured below). The 4-1/2 is more rare, and thus more expensive than a number 4. And a number 3 is usually less expensive than a number 4. I have large hands and prefer a number 4 or 4-1/2, but I also own a few number 3’s and I can certainly use them without discomfort. They just give a little narrower shaving. And, of course, if you’ve got a larger budget, then I really like Scottish infill smoothing planes (i.e. “British” infill smoothing planes), which I talked about earlier. Not only are these planes attractive (pictured below), but they’re heavy and precision made, with tight mouths and solid bodies, which makes for excellent smoothing.

The rod diameter is 7/32 with a 20 tpi thread. A 1/4” rod diameter is usually associated with 20 tpi (1/4-20) and a 7/32 rod. For this, you may need a Stanley wood plane parts diagram and a tape measure. As for the records, Stanley made tools starting in 1843, including a bench plane.I had a question about weights of different type planes, so I weighed a few I had. I thought it would be interesting. Here is what I found. The are all Bailey #4’s of different vintages. Again, it takes a bit more work to adjust wooden hand planes, but once I get it dialed in for a fine shaving, I usually don’t have to do much tuning until it’s time to resharpen the iron. I own the WoodRiver No. 4-1/2 smoothing plane, and it works exceptionally well once it’s sharpened. Don’t expect any tool maker to deliver a handplane that is perfectly sharpened and honed to an acceptable level. Not even Lie-Nielsen. Stanley Type 12 Handplanes date 1919-1924. The knob is taller than the previous style. The taller knob is called a “high knob.” The brass depth adjustment nut is measured at 1.25″ in diameter, which is larger than the previous one. There are logo changes.

Stanley Type 9 Handplanes date from 1902-1907. No patent date on the lateral lever. “B” casting marks are eliminated. The number designation is now cast just behind the knob. A smaller bearing surface is cast into the bed. The frog has a slot at its bottom to fit over the ribbed cast in the bed.I’ve spent a few more years scrounging and now I have the 3½ (wasn’t a 3), a swedish #4½ I spent a lot of time fettling and restoring, a #5 and a #7. I paid between 5-40 euros per plane. Transitional hand planes are a cross between a wooden handplane and a metal handplane. They have metal parts with a wooden body. You may think that they were the evolutionary link between wooden bench planes and metal bench planes, but they were actually released after the initial metal bench planes. From what I understand, it was to appeal to people who liked the adjustability of metal planes, but missed the wooden soles and bodies of the all-wooden bench planes. It could also have been a way for tool companies to offer a more affordable line of bench planes.