Stanley 45 - Combination plow plane and beading plane
Vintage Stanley combination planes have always intrigued me. Hand plane
technology progressed
through the centuries with wooden planes making way for metal-bodied planes.
Molding, grooving
and dado planes, including plow, dado, beading, etc., have historically been
dedicated wooden planes
with the profile and preset offset from the edge of the board built-in. This
translated to having a different
wooden plane for each application, and could get cumbersome for the cabinetmaker
of the time.
The Stanley No.45 and No.55 combination planes were
at the end of the evolutionary line of hand planes.
Stanley developed this combination plane with an
adjustable fence which is capable of accepting an
assortment of straight blades, beading planes, and match groove blades. This
design removed
the need to have multiple wooden planes for different sized grooves, dadoes ,
rabbets and beads.
This particular series of plane, the Stanley No. 45 - 55 , was developed at the
peak of the metal
hand plane design era ( late 1800's). It is interesting that if one were to
develop a similar-featured plane
today, the design would probably look not too much different than the Stanley
No. 45..
This particular model, the Stanley No. 45 has
been in production from the late 1800's to
the middle
of the 1900's with many different variants along the way. Each
variant was either
adopted for
manufacturing efficiency or to implement a new feature into the
plane.
The type I have ( Type 7B) is very likely early
1904-06 vintage. The Patrick Leach "Blood and Gore"
web site
is a great place to visit and determine what vintage your old Stanley or Record
plane is.
Certain small
features are either part of this plane or not, enough to narrow
down the
production dates
of Stanley planes
to within a few years of each other.
For example, my Stanley No. 45 has the floral
motifs along the main body and sliding,
adjustable skate which date this plane to before 1910 when the motif became a
pebble-effect.
The knob was also moved from the main body to the fence in the very late 1800's. All wood
components are original rosewood, the
plane body itself is nickel-plated. Very early No. 45's
were japanned and had brass fittings. Nickel-plated bodies were introduced
afterwards.
The No. 45 has a small learning curve and a
series of adjustments to complete even before
beginning to plow grooves or dadoes. There are spurs or nickers on both the main
body skate and
the sliding skate, just ahead of the blade. The skates are called that either
because they skate
along the surface of the wood, and they look like ice skates in shape. The
skates serve to both support
the
blade at the rear and to create a bearing surface for the plane to ride in along
the board being grooved.
The adjustable, sliding skate can be removed for the narrowest, 1/4 in. cutter.
The fixed, single skate
is sufficient for support of the smallest cutter.
I read about and also noticed that there is a
large built-in gap ahead of the interchangeable blades
which results in a large mouth opening. This presents an issue with gnarly
woods, so it is recommended
that straight-grained woods be used. I set the blade for a very light cut to
compensate for this,
however
this translates to many more strokes to arrive at the same point. This
No. 45 has an adjustable depth
stop which works very well. The next variant ( post- 1910) of this Stanley No.
45 had an fence adjustable
with
a fence adjusting screw setup which makes it easier to tweak the fence.
I disassembled and cleaned this particular plane,
to become familiar with the different components.
I sharpened and honed 3 of the straight cutters ( 1/4 in, 5/16 in., 3/8 in.
blades), and honed a 3/8 in. beading cutter
to perform testing of the plane. I ultimately used cherry and birch. Initially I
tried the No. 45 on mahogany, but the
grain is interlocking and reverses presenting opportunity for tearout with this
plane. This plane does however
easily plow through straight-grained woods creating straight, symmetric and
accurate beads, grooves,
dadoes in no time! Setup time isn't a whole lot more than a setting up a
router and bit in a router table.
Stanley 45 , shown below with short and long bars, part-way through a 3/8 in.
bead along the edge of a board.
Stanley 45, shown below with short and long bars, part-way through a 3/8 in. bead
along the edge of a board.
Stanley 45, shown with short and long bars, part-way through a 1/4 in. groove
along the edge of a cherry board,
this can easily be a groove for a drawer bottom.
Photo of dual skates and cutter (1/4 in. blade).
The skate between the main body at the right and the adjustable
fence at the left is the sliding, adjustable skate. Notice the edges of the dual
skates are set slightly narrower than
the edge of the cutter, this to not inhibit or bind the plane in the groove.
Also notice the dual skates ahead of the
cutter have spurs or nickers along their edges, used to score when cutting
dadoes ( cross-grain).
Stanley No. 45 set up to make 1/2 in. rabbets
along the length of a birch board. The two necessary adjustments
the depth of the cutter in relation to the skates and the sliding skate
location. This skate supports the outboard
part of the 7/8 in. cutter. The depth gauge adjustment also needs to be set for
the vertical depth of the rabbet.
Stanley No. 45 set up to make 1/2 in. rabbets
along the length of a birch board. The two necessary adjustments
the depth of the cutter in relation to the skates and the sliding skate
location. This skate supports the outboard
part of the 7/8 in. cutter. The depth gauge adjustment also needs to be set for
the vertical depth of the rabbet.
It is important to keep the plane vertical for a level rabbet, along with
keeping the fence along the edge of the
board throughout the cut.
Below is the Stanley No. 45 with a 7/8 in. rabbet cutter installed. I
sharpened the cutter, flattened and polished
the back, and set a primary bevel at 30 degrees, honed and polished to 4000
grit. Notice the fence is actually
beneath the cutter when making rabbets and is set to the width of the rabbet.
The sliding skate (supporting skate
in this instance) is at the outside of the cutter or blade, hidden by the
rosewood fence.
Also, the adjustable depth gauge is in plain view.
Side view of the main body of the Stanley No. 45
with adjustable depth stop and scoring cutter.
Notice also the floral motif on the body which significantly narrows the age of
this plane to circa
1895- 1905.
Competed 1/4 in. groove (drawer bottom) and 3/8 in. bead ( below) in cherry board.
Below, an assortment of cutters that come with this
particular model. I also have a few extra cutters and other
parts for
specialized applications (slitter, cam). The cutters in the middle of the box
have been sharpened,
backs lapped, and honed to 4000 grit. The 3/8 in. beading cutter used above has only the back
lapped to
not deform the profile of the cutter. Match cutter is at the right, used for creating tongue and
grooves.
The original box this Stanley No. 45 was purchased
in... with 100 years of wear showing. It was fun bringing
this plane back to life as a nice user plane. I intend to use it to create
joinery on some of my
future projects.
