sweetheart blades

**planeguy** · 05-22-2006, 07:16 AM

i was sharpening a few blades yesterday,among them my 2 sweetheart blades, from a 3c and a 5, when i noticed each sweetheart has 444 stamped on it.Does anyone else seen these on sw's?

**deathwish2** · 05-22-2006, 08:40 PM

I can only speak to what I own . . . but the only thing stampedon my 'SW'-era plane irons besides the stanley SW logo is the "Made in USA" on my block plane and "Made in Can" (that's all that shows, unless that's all there was) on my #78.

My Bailey styles are all from before or after the 'Sweetheart' era, or are from other manufacturers. So it could just be something exclusive to those . . . or not. ;)

Did you get them all from the same source? Maybe they were ID marks by the previous owner? Pr dp they look like 'original' stampings?

**planeguy** · 05-22-2006, 09:03 PM

the #5 i got from a garage sale, the blade was in a newer #5.The #3. i got from a friend who works at a transfer station(refuse site)when he noticed someone was going to throw it away.>They are different sources, or a very huge co-incidence

**dcarter636** · 05-22-2006, 11:30 PM

The only number marks I've found on Stanley irons have been date codes from after the SW trademark ended, T-16 & T-17.

**CT yankee** · 06-02-2006, 12:18 PM

the date code on the back of the war era planes are :
first number-the quarter of the year
second two numbers-year
so yours would be the first quarter of 1944
I've seen some dated blades from 1938 through 1945

Walt Q

it's not the tool, so much as the hand that guides it....