Bench&Brace

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Sargent

Sargent was Stanley's most serious American competitor in planes for the better part of eighty years. It built a full Bailey-pattern range, a premium self-aligning line to answer the Bedrock, and quietly manufactured the planes that hardware chains sold under their own names - so a great many tools that say Craftsman, Fulton or Keen Kutter are Sargents underneath.

  • founded 1864
  • USA
  • 9 model pages

If you find an unbranded or hardware-store plane that is plainly not a Stanley, Sargent is the most likely maker. Learning to recognise one solves a large share of 'what is this plane' questions.

No published type study covers this maker to the precision Stanley's does. Date one from its numbering scheme, its markings and catalogue appearances, and expect a decade rather than a year.

Company names over time

The name on a tool is itself a dating clue, because it changed when the company did.

NameUsed
Sargent & Company1864–present

Timeline

  • 1864Sargent & Company established at New Haven, Connecticut as a general hardware manufacturer.
  • 1887Plane production begins in earnest, competing directly with Stanley's Bailey line.
  • 1910The 'VBM' trademark - Very Best Made - comes into use, cast into the lever cap. Its presence brackets a plane to roughly the 1910s and early 1920s.
  • 1920The Auto-Set line is established as the premium range, with a frog that returns to its setting when reassembled.
  • 1964Plane production ends. Sargent continues to this day as an architectural lock manufacturer, which is what most people now know the name for.

Collecting notes

  • 'VBM' cast into the lever cap is the single most useful Sargent marking. It is an era indicator, not a quality grade, whatever the words say.
  • Sargent made planes badged for Sears (Fulton, Dunlap and some Craftsman), Simmons (Keen Kutter) and others. A hardware-store plane with Sargent castings is a Sargent, and usually costs less than one that says so.
  • The Auto-Set line is Sargent's answer to the Bedrock and carries a similar premium, though nothing like the Bedrock's.
  • Sargent castings and machining are genuinely comparable to Stanley's for the same period. The price difference reflects collector fashion, not quality.

Bench Planes

Sources