tool age

[1scott]

i just got a bailey/stanley (which is it??? it has both on it) no. 6 with aug-02 stamped on it....is the pat.date close to the manufacture date??? thanks

[dcarter636]

United States Patents are generally active for 17 years after the grant date. So if the patent grant date is Aug 1902 the plane could have been made anytime between 1902 and 1919. Stanley Rule and Level Co. manufactured planes using Leonard Bailey's patented designs. There are Bailey planes that were not made by stanley but they are very old and rare.

This website has a bunch of useful information that you might find interesting. http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan0.htm

Dave Carter

[1scott]

cool thanks...

[Sawduster]

Scott,
This page has a flowchart for dating Stanley Benchplanes which should enable you to date the plane accurately.

http://www.hyperkitten.com/tools/stanley_bench_plane/dating/main.html

If that is the only patent date stamped, then it is either a type 13 or type 14 which would place it as having been made between 1925 and 1930.

If there are 2 patent dates then it is either a type 9 or 10, 3 patent dates would make it a type 11 or 12.

Other differences are used to determine between the types beyond the number of paten dates such as the casting for the front knob, reinforcement ribs . . .

[1scott]

yepper...just those #'s. i guess it's old regardless....that is the thing i am liking about these things...wondering about all the guys and gals that may have gave this a slide over some wood...hmmm. maybe someone famous...maybe nobody...still interesting

[Sawduster]

Yeah, that is something that is on my mind when I use some of those old ones. Also why when I refurbish an old tool I only take the first fifty or so years of grime off. Gets you back to the grime of the earlier owners, the folks for whom these were made.