Stanley Bailey Five and a Half

This was the last of the old eBay planes that I wanted to get back into working order, the biggest and heaviest one, a Stanley Bailey 5 1/2. It's fifteen inches long and has a two and three-eighths inch wide cutter. The US version of this plane ceased production in 1958, and I'd guess this English one also dates from the 1950s. The No 5 plane (which I already had) was slightly shorter and had a two-inch cutter, and continued in production in the US for another thirty years - presumably because users preferred a slightly lighter jack-plane.

Before I started on it, it looked like this:



The pitting in the sole has resulted from the plane being stored in damp conditions for too long. I didn't photograph the cutter, but the whole plane really was pretty badly treated.



It came apart very easily, and luckily neither of the two handles was damaged. In fact, they were both the older style in proper rosewood, and the larger handle still had most of the "Stanley" transfer to be seen on the top.

Here's how it looks now:



The sole doesn't look perfect, but really it doesn't need to be mirror-smooth.

This shows the other view:



The handles are held on with brass screws (rather than the cheaper steel ones found on later planes) and the rosewood polished up quite well, and - as usual - with an hour or so of work, it was possible to get the cutter reasonably sharp too. I went only as far as the 1200 grit wet-and-dry - later on I will do the really sharp finish when I am actually about to start a real piece of work. The proof of the pudding, of course, is how well it works, and I found that it cut a nice long and transparent curl of wood from a piece of scrap wood.

As it was the last plane and now it's been done, I hope tomorrow to re-arrange the workshop, get rid of the old and temporary "bench" supported on concrete blocks, and move my new bench into its proper place. From then on, it should be carpentry rather than fettling tools.