I’ve been looking at the #40 Stanley for a while. When I saw a couple of planes on Ebay that needed some TLC and seemed to be a reasonable price, I pulled the trigger. They came as a lot, along with a very nice 220 block.
I haven’t repainted the Stanley #40 yet. I’m not sure if I will or not. What you see in the picture that looks like rust is just the fluid film. I’m not sure why the picture make it a “rusty” color.
Here are the before pictures.
After getting the plane I just gave it a quick cleanup and sharpening to give it a test run. I’ve never used a scrub before. I was pretty impressed with its ability to remove wood quickly.
Basically all I did was refinish the wood as I normally do, using BLO
as a finish, give the rest a good wire brushing and put it back together all cleaned and oiled. Unlike a bench plane, the #40 typically has painted sides. This didn’t have much left, but for now I am not repainting.
The #S5 was an added bonus for me. Not that I needed another #5, but I don’t have an S#. Stanley made an S4 and an S5. If you haven’t seen the S5, here is what Patrick Gore has to say about them:
“Offered as indestructable planes, Stanley made these planes for heavy duty abuse. They advertised them as being useful for shops that had concrete floors. If I were in Stanley’s marketing department, back when the planes were offered, I would have added that the planes were also designed for those workdudes prone to losing their temper, where the planes can withstand their being slammed to the ground during a fit of rage, like after you smash your thumb with a hammer or something like that.
These planes beg abuse, and have a pressed or forged steel bottom. The steel is bent to form a U-shape. A piece forward of the mouth and rear of the mouth are riveted to the steel bottom. The lever cap and frog are made of malleable iron (the normal bench planes have their bottom casting made of gray iron), with the frog’s casting having a noticeably coarser texture than those provided on the Bailey line.”
Here are the before pictures:
I pretty much did a normal restore here is my normal restore blog but here are the highlights for the S5.
The japanning was so far gone i just soaked it in Evapo-rust overnight, then added a little paint remover. There wasn’t much to remove, so it didn’t take a lot of effort. Finished the clean up and painted it several coats of the engine enamel. Knob and tote got the same treatment as above.
The original cap had the background on the logo painted red, so I redid that, sharpened it, and put it back together.
Its got a few pitted spots on the side walls, but all-in-all it came out pretty reasonable. Its found a spot in my cabinet (which is already running out of room).
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you found some interesting tidbits to make it worth your time.
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