STANLEY No. 4 Bailey Bench Plane, 1-12-2004

It's a Stanley, so it works, it's stable, it's reliable. Having spent 20GBP on a cheap "Pound Shop" own brand plane, ones sees where the extra money goes on a quality product from a quality manufacturer. And one does not regret it. My "cheap" plane is now wedging the workshop door open (it's about all it's any use for.) There's an old adage "buy cheap, buy twice" - at least when it comes to tools. Lesson learned. Hand plane obsessives and/or collectors will no doubt opine that the totes are plastic and not wood, and this and that are some micrometers too big/small, the quality of the cutting iron , etc. - but for an average "handyman" (or woman or non gendered specific individual,) this just gets the job done. Like all planes (and cutting tools generally,) even "new" it will benefit from a bit of "setting up" - e.g. lap the base, soften/bevel the edged, sharpen the iron, check everything is lubricated - I also like to sand down the mould seems on the totes for extra comfort - but once done it's a joy to use. For newbies, there's plenty of YouTube vids showing how to set up a plane.

Although this plane worked right out the box it does actually need a fair bit of setup. However for I beginning plane I think that is a good idea as you learn a lot about plane setup and maintenance as you do it. The sole and sides are not finished smooth however as the plane body is still releasing the tensions from manufacture I do not regard this as a problem as at around sixth months from purchase it will need the sole and sides to be ground flat anyway. The only downside of the plane are the plastic handles. These shatter very easily. I dropped mine on the floor within a week of purchase and as a result had to carve a replacement tote out of some scrap wood I had to hand. However once properly set up this plane is as good as a pre war vintage one.

I bought this plane knowing it isn't top of the range but it was at the limit of my price range! I'm not disappointed and am really enjoying using it. It is well made, solid and good quality. I'm a novice plane-user and felt a little daunted by it, as I'd read negative reviews which said how long it took to set up. I think the key is, accept you need to spend a good bit of time setting it up before use, but enjoy learning about it too. Firstly the blade needs honing from 25° to 30°. And to do that you'll need to learn all components. Instructions are OK, but not ideal. So I checked out Matt Estleas YouTube channel, one of his videos titled "how to get silky smooth shavings from a plane". He has in fact 7 videos on settings up planes. He explains everything brilliantly and now my plane is set up perfectly❤️ It took a couple of hours perhaps but they were well spent and very pleasant!

Excellent tool

Toyed with the idea of an electric plane, but reviews so good for this product, and I remember my dad having a quality plane, that I chose this. Please I did. Solid, easy to adjust, nice cut and so much more tactile than an electric. Horses for courses, and I might sway to the dark side in the future for a door bottom, but for delicate jobs and thosse where I want greater control on what I'm doing this fits the bill for all budding joiners

This is my first hand plane, but I've read a lot before buying it. So, i decided to get a cheap Stanley firstly for training myself in tune it up. For sure, it was a good decision, because it was a lot of tuning to do. First of all, the sole wasn't flat at all. It required about 1 1/2 hours of flattening.The frog must be flatten to - another half an hour. The chip breaker must be trimmed off to eliminate gaps. The mouth must be filed out in order to let the shaving out. Off course, the iron must be sharpen and honed (finally I bought another 3.1 mm thick Juuma blade for best results and I kept the original as a spare). The most annoying issue was that the frog simply didn't stay parallel with the mouth - the alignment tab is really useless because doesn't guide the frog at all. It was a matter of 'eyeballing' for setting the blade parallel with the throat and it still is.The frog didn't sit firmly against the plane body, there were only a few square millimeters of contact between them. I've tried to increase the contact surface by rubbing the frog back and forth against the plane,using oil and lapping grit. Now it seams that the body supports the frog with all the intended surface and the rocking was eliminated (i have some pictures if needed), but the frog still doesn't slide parallel with body sides when acting the adjustment screw. So the final setup is somehow a matter of eyeballing. The blade adjustment screw has about 2-3 revolutions of dead heat, but as far as it is my first hand plane, i don't know if this behavior is normal or not. Now I can use it chatter free and it works smoothly but only in softwood. I don't know how it will work with some hardwoods. Definitely, could be a good choice for someone who wants to learn what a hand plane is and how to set it up !

I have only used it to scrub a door so far but a used it out of the box so not set it up probably yet. Though it did the job it was probably more work than it should have been with a sharper blade and accurate flat bottom. It is horrendous on end grain out of the box but it did the job, as no one will see the underside of a door.

This was brought for my husband. He was very pleased with plane and thought it was good value for the price. This seller was top marks for me. Fast trouble free buy. Would buy off him again.

Plastic made handle that broke after 10 uses, the blade is OK after setup, but for such a price you would expect a better quality build, disappointing

I've been reassembling my woodworking toolkit (don't ask!) and this little fellow will be the core of it. The Stanley #4 is THE classic plane. I'm planning on using it for some fine work, so I've done some tuning, as out of the box, while it's entirely usable, it responds well to having its sole flattening and a couple of other tiny tweaks. Hence the four stars for accuracy and for beginners. If you're willing to invest some effort and time into this gem, it'll be a tool for life.

Mémé si normalement il faut affuter la lame quand un rabot est neuf (et c'est marque dans le mode d'emploi), il a pas mal marche sans rien faire. Attention je compare ce magnifique rabot a ce que j’essaie d'utiliser avant, évidement très mouves. Je suis très content d'avoir dépense un peu plus, car maintenant je peux faire des ajustes bien fins sans probleme. Je ne suis pas de tout expert, mais pas besoin pour noter la grande différence.

Front knob and back handle are made of very cheap plastic, they were broken into two pieces when i received. These tools are legend for woodworking for centuries. How come Stanely: The inventor" of this tool shamed them with cheap mentality by putting cheap plastic knob and handle?

Seems ok