What a find.

[Lemwise]

Look what I just bought, a pre-war Stanley No 3 with the original hardware and rosewood handles. No cracks in the sole, cheeks or wood. It was dirt cheap as well, just €55, that's $59.

 

[ear3]

Congrats.  Are you going to modify at all with a new blade, frog, or chipbreaker?

 

[DrD]

That is truly beautiful!  Congrats!

 

[Lemwise]

If the blade is in good shape I will probably only put an after market chip breaker in it. Workshop Heaven sells very nice 3mm thick Quangsheng chipbreaker. (they also have a very nice stainless steel cap iron). A thick chipbreaker like that is enough to dampen and stabilise the blade. I will most likely sand the handle and knob back to bare wood and put a 2K clear wood sealer on them. Flatten the sole and that's it. I'm not going to do anything about the patina. It shows the age and that it's been used. I like that.

 

[Cheese]

Wow...didn't realize that there was even a modern market for these things between LN, Lee Valley, Marcou and Bridge City. Maybe it's time to clean house...  [smile]

 

[Lemwise]

Old Stanley planes, especially from the pre-war era are very good. The casting, machining and quality of the blade is miles ahead of what Stanley makes these days. If you have some old Stanley planes I'd put them on ebay. They sell like hot cakes.

 

[Tyler Ernsberger]

Are you sure it's pre war.  Pre war has Key Hole lever caps.  Your plane has a kidney shaped opening in the lever cap making it post war.

 

[Bob D.]

I believe the kidney shaped cap iron came into being in the 1930s.

A great resource on old Stanley planes is Pat Leach's site Blood & Gore.
http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan0a.html

Info on the Stanley #3 can be found here.
http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan1.htm#num3

 

[Lemwise]

As far as I know Stanley started making the cap iron with the kidney shaped opening in 1936. And even if it's post-war it's still miles ahead of modern Stanley planes. At this price I'm not going to complain about a few years.

 

[Bob D.]

As far as I know Stanley started making the cap iron with the kidney shaped opening in 1936. And even if it's post-war it's still miles ahead of modern Stanley planes. At this price I'm not going to complain about a few years.

Agreed. The price seems reasonable for what I see in the photo. I don't have a #3 myself but about a half dozen or so other sizes that I put to use occasionally. They are not just collecting dust on the wall.

 

[Lemwise]

Agreed. The price seems reasonable for what I see in the photo.

Not to mention I trust the seller. He just doesn't clean the tools. You buy them in the state he finds them in. After disassembling and cleaning the whole thing it will look much better.

 

[Lemwise]

My biggest complaint of planes in general are about the collectors who never use them making prices higher for older tools which were meant to be used as tools but instead they just sit on a shelf like "my precious" from Lord of the Rings.

But it's more fun to look at them than to use them!

 

[tony_sheehan]

Really nice find Lemwise. I love my No3, it's a plane I use a lot. Mines completely standard- I've never felt the need to change the blade or cap iron.

 

[curiousdork]

Look what I just bought, a pre-war Stanley No 3 with the original hardware and rosewood handles. No cracks in the sole, cheeks or wood. It was dirt cheap as well, just €55, that's $59.

My Type-9 5 1/2C from 1910-1912 is a solid hand plane.  Picked it up on eBay for $72 w/ shipping.  It was in good condition and I cambered the blade so that it's a scrub plane.  The first plane I ever purchased was a 2000 something Stanley Sweetheart 62.  It's a decent blade but the construction of the 5 1/2C is something else, you can feel the difference.