Stanley #29 Transitional Plane

When I bought a box of wooden planes during an auction at my PAST old tool meeting in January, it included a Stanley #29 transitional plane.  I've never had a chance to check out these planes and have been curious about them for a long time.

The Stanley #29

There is some good information about the transitionals at Pat Leach's supertool site, though he doesn't seem to care much for the #29 (at least not as far as collecting is concerned).

Stamp on the toe

As you can see in the first picture, the plane body is wood, and there is a metal casting that supports the frog assembly, knob and tote.

Casting on wood body

The casting is attached to the wooden body with two screws - one behind the knob (seen in the next pic) and one behind the tote (seen in a pic further below).  As we'll see below, the screws that hold the knob and frog to the plane further affix the casting to the wooden body.

The knob is screwed directly into the wooden body through a hole in the casting.

Knob

The tote is attached to the casting in a manner we're more accustomed to with metal planes - a rod that is threaded on both ends screws into a brass nut at top and into a boss in the casting at bottom.

Tote

Tote securing rod

The iron assembly is very similar to all-metal planes with an iron, cap-iron and lever cap.

Iron assembly

The frog is screwed directly into the wooden body through two holes in the casting.

Frog screwed down

Frog unscrewed

The brass depth adjustment nut sits very low in the plane.  You can see it in the picture of the tote above - you can't get a finger under it.  Because of its position, adjusting the plane is a little more challenging.

Another very interesting thing about this depth adjuster knob - it has a right hand thread, as opposed to the adjuster on every metal plane I've ever used.  So to advance the iron, you turn the adjuster counter-clockwise.

In trying to date this plane, I came across a post on the Time Tested Tools website entitled "Roger K. Smith's Stanley Transitional Type Study".  Near as I can tell, my plane is a type 9, produced between 1888 and 1892.  This plane has right hand threads for the depth adjuster and the type study said that a left hand thread began with type 10.  Also, the trademark stamped on the toe started with type 8.  My lateral adjust lever is equipped with a round disc and that started with type 9.

One thing complicating this is that there is no marking on the iron whatsoever.  No "Stanley", no "Stanley Rule & Level Co.", nothing.  Maybe it's a replacement iron.  There are also no patent dates on the lateral adjustment lever and there are supposed to be three for a type 9.  The lever also has a double bend in it just above where the iron ends so that it can more easily clear the top of the tote (see the picture of the tote above).

There are probably other things that don't jive with the type study, but I think I'll just go with it being a type 9.

A couple of statistics:

Length:                 20"
Body Width:         3 1/16"
Body Height:        1 5/8"
Iron Width:           2 3/8"


Next time I'll write about restoring this plane.