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.
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