Excellent review. You hit all the key points and answered all the questions someone might have. This video makes the decision of which block plane to buy (i.e., high vs. lower price points). Very nice and thank you !!!
At 5:40 you compare lever caps, one being machined and the other one just painted and gave it a thumbs down for the Stanley, yet at 7:00 you didn't give a thumbs down to the Veritas when you discussed the machining of the frogs between the two. In my opinion, either the lever cap or the frog needs to be machined to provide a good bearing surface for the blade. That makes the two planes equal in that respect.
I stumbled upon this video by accident. Watched it and really enjoyed it. Gadgets and tools fascinate me although I am not much of a carpenter. I do woodturning as a hobby in my spare time. Now my question is, why would you want to do planing with a block or hand plane if you could do it on a jointer? Is it for the fun factor or to get more satisfaction from planing wood yourself? These two little block planes are just visually awesome!
The Stanley doesn't look too bad, I don't like I aluminium level cap on them. That's the big spoiler for me, I have a low Angle Clifton Broze block plane and a Lie Nielsen low angle block & rebate plane and a Bronze Veritas No 95 all 3 in my own opinion are the best plane's in the world , I have a lot of vintage Stanley too, thanks for your video I enjoyed it, best wishes from a vintage Carpenter in old England 🇬🇧 .
The Stanley SW planes are a really good sweet spot for price/value. You are getting the heavier casting and thick blade performance of the Veritas and Lie Neilson planes for a much cheaper price. For anyone thinking of buying an old Stanley or even a cheap plane from a big box store, they are a good step up.
The Veritas block plane looks like a copy of the Stanley No 60 1/2 A , low angle, which was only made for a couple of years, I have one and that Veritas looks just like it.
Thanks for the review I just got my Stanley today not wanting to invest the extra $100 for Veritas as I want to experiment a little first and not risk an overly expensive tool. I was frustrated with the Stanley out of the box until I took it apart and studied how the blade slide works. I would bottom out the adjuster and the blade would still not protrude. I discovered their is an adjustment for the starting point of the iron. I would have thought Stanley could get that adjustment right from the factory. Minor annoyance and after I fixed that the plane cuts well. I don't like how you upset the blade angle every time you want to change the depth adjustment. The Veritas looks like you can make depth adjustments without disturbing the blade angle. Oh well I guess $100 does buy you a lot. I like it, it's a keeper.
This happened to me. Somehow it became horrifically crossthreaded in a way a person wouldn't accidentally do to their brand new tool. I think probably the threads were poorly done, not properly cleaned out (like a little bit of steel sherf in the tapped hole) or otherwise of failing quality, subsequently the brass part turned to cheese because of that and I barely got it out of there. I did make a comment on their site when it happened. given that was about two-three years ago and here I am, I am still a little bitter about it apparently... Edit: so just out of curiousity I look on their site for this product and go over the reviews and find mine is no longer there. I am done with this company.
I have quite a bit of experience with the sweetheart planes. The main complain is, that Stanley does not support the customers by selling spare blades for the 62 Jackplane or the Number 4. I‘m afraid of being in the same situation with this Blockplane.
Backlash on the adjustment screw is pretty bad, and it's not caused by the thread, it's mostly the play in the mechanism. Also, knurling is pretty useless, I had to chase it with a needle-file.
How long does the edge last on both? How well do they both do end grain? These are some of the things that set them apart, otherwise get a cheapo Chinese knock off for half the price and re-sharpen often.
I have the same plane,and sorry to say it will fail very quickly due to the weakness of the little brass screw which holds the cap iron,and wont last long being used by the students,and the maker will not replace the broken screw
I have the Stanley, I restore victorian houses, and use I almost daily. The threads are stripping out in the lever cap. I bought it because I dropped my old 60-1/2 actual sweetheart and cracked the side, the new one is a damn boat anchor. It’s ok, but that lever cap will be junk in les than a year, the tread length is too short, and good lord why isn’t the anchor screw got a slot in it? It’s also too short, and will strip. Also, the mouth adjustment slot was too short and I had to file almost 1/8” of the slot out.
I bought one of this stanley planes and the pin was crossthreaded or the threads had otherwise came damaged, not my doing I am very certain. This basically made that bolt unusable and I had to use a tap to clean out those threads and replace it with a steel bolt I found at the hardware store... Major disapointment. But that got worse because you will find with these that the level cap is some alluminum or other weak material and the wheel on the lever cap, I honestly can not trust that to not ride up and risk stripping that threading out too. In my opinion this is not a good tool and it just feels bad to use (the weight is good but the mecanicals of how it goes together feel wrong). Years later I had a chance to use a high end block plane when I took a coarse and I can say they are not comparable.
When I took shop in the late 60s, we had to make a cube with hand tools. Every branch was used by two kids, and there were two drawers on each side which held the tools for that station. The planes, both with steel bodies, were too dull to cut warm butter, the had saws handn’t been set or sharpened since h\they left the factory after WW-II. So, I found a some files and a saw set, in the tool room, and sharpened up the saws in my work station. Then I took the planes apart and started working on them, there were coarse stones in the tool room, but nothing good to do a fine edge with. But, there was a lapidary shop that had a polishing wheel, so I used it to get mirror surfaces on the bottoms, and the blades. When I was almost done with the smoother, the Teacher caught me and asked me what I was doing. And, I told, “Fettling these planes, they were so dull they wouldn’t cut warm butter.” he took the block plane I had finished, and tried it on the bit of scrap I had to tune it with, and made some shavings. Then he said, well I’ll give you an A for the year if you be the tool steward, and just keep all the tools cleaned up and working. I took three years of shop from him, and got “A”s all three years. Never did make anything.
I thank you for being interested in keeping the manual arts alive, but I strongly disagree with your accessment of this plane. Do your students a favour and do not consider the Stanley Sweetheart. I bought one and returned it as it was not only rubbish, it arrived damaged due to nothing more than the USPS not handling the box gently. Poorly designed and made of low quality materials with little or no attention to the manufacture and no possibility of being made to work properly . Look at Woodriver or even the Chinese Qushang brand also sold as Luban. I collect block planes and have around 60 from old pressed steel stanleys to the full range of Veritas and lie Nielsen block planes. These low cost Chinese planes are well made and well finished ,perform well and will provide the students with a positive experience of block planes at a price that is not going to break the bank. I have a couple of Luban planes that I cart around to woodworking groups with me so I will always have planes that are sharp and work well and that I am not worried about letting others use them. I do not take my Lie-Nielsen planes out of my workshop and I do not allow others to use them, not so with the luban planes. they are made of malleable iron so would survive a fall and only cost a fraction of the premium planes cost.All the best.
