A cleaned up Type 11 Stanley No 4 1/2

Dominic Greco

Member
Messages
149
Location
Bucks County PA
Hi Gang,
Well, here's a neat Type 11 (at least, that's what Hyper Kitten's On-Line Stanley Bench Plane Type Study tells me it is) that I got from Ebay last year. From the patent dates, and lever cap hole I believe it's one of those "tall handled" type 11s you hear about. And the online type study seems to confirm that. It appears to have a rosewood tote and knob although the tote looks like it was stained.
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But from what I could see when I disassembled it, it's definitely rosewood.

Before:
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Aside from some surface rust and staining on the sole, It was in pretty decent shape. The original iron was so pitted that I ended up ditching it and installing a new Stanley iron I had laying around.

I just wire brushed the rusty parts and flattened the sole on my lapping plate. And as far as flattening the sole, not much was needed. I applied DyeChem and gave it a couple passes on the sandpaper. Pretty much all of the blue was removed in those first passes. That tells me that the sole it pretty darn flat. I confirmed this with my straight edge. The fact that some of the staining remained doesn't really bother me. I've gotten to the point that this kinda stuff doesn't bug me as long as it doesn't hurt the performance.

After I sharpened and honed the iron with a slight camber, I tried out this gem of a smoother on some tricky grained ambrosia maple. From what I've seen, this wood can be a real PAIN to plane. I think it's a combination of the "softness" and the reversing grain. As you can see, I was getting some nice full width shavings. After that I tried it out on some walnut. I think you get the picture!
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After
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Thanks for viewing!
 
Nice job.
I love the old planes, especially converting one man's trash into my treasure. The totes on the old Stanley's fit my hands like a glove - much better than any newer ones i've used.
have fun with it.
Paul Hubbman
 
Dom, that look great. :thumb: I've got a type 11 No. 3 that was my granddad's, and now that I've cleaned it up (and added a Hock iron and Clifton chipbreaker) it's a sweet little user. My first good plane. ;) I think it's also one of the tall handle versions you mentioned. I'll have to get a pic of it so you can confirm or deny that for me.
 
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