Bench&Brace

Identification

It Isn't a Stanley - So What Is It?

How to identify the maker of an unfamiliar bench plane from its numbering, castings and markings, and why the answer is usually Sargent, Millers Falls or Record.

  • updated 2026-08-29
  • 3 min read
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Most identification questions start the same way. Someone finds a plane that is obviously a Bailey-pattern bench plane — knob, tote, frog, lateral lever — and it does not say Stanley anywhere, or it says something unhelpful like Fulton or Dunlap.

Three makers account for the large majority of these, and each gives itself away in a few seconds.

Start with the number, because the numbering schemes differ

This is the fastest route, and it needs nothing but a tape measure.

If the number isAnd the sole measuresIt is
A plain 1–8, possibly with a fractionAnythingStanley (or a Stanley copy)
A plain number that equals the sole lengthe.g. No. 14 on a 14" planeMillers Falls
4 followed by the sole lengthe.g. 414 on a 14" planeSargent, standard line
7 followed by the sole lengthe.g. 714 on a 14" planeSargent, Auto-Set line
A number with a leading zeroe.g. 05, 04-1/2, 07Record (English)

The insight worth internalising is that Stanley's numbering is the only one that encodes nothing. The No. 4 is nine inches, the No. 5 is fourteen, the No. 8 is twenty-four, and there is no rule connecting them. Everyone else numbered by length because it is obviously the sensible thing to do.

So if the number on the plane matches the sole length in inches, you are not holding a Stanley.

Then confirm with the markings

Stanley — STANLEY cast into the bed, usually BAILEY on the toe, MADE IN USA from 1931.

Millers Falls — the name cast or stamped on the body or lever cap, with either Millers Falls or Greenfield, Massachusetts. A red-painted frog is a strong hint and is original.

Sargent — SARGENT on the bed or lever cap, often with New Haven, Connecticut. VBM cast into the lever cap is Sargent's own trademark, standing for "Very Best Made", and brackets the plane to roughly the 1910s.

Record — RECORD in the lever cap and MADE IN ENGLAND on the body. Beech handles rather than rosewood are normal and correct.

If it says a hardware store name

Fulton, Dunlap, Keen Kutter, Winchester, Craftsman and dozens of others were badges, not manufacturers. The stores bought planes from the real makers and had their own name cast in.

Sargent was the most prolific supplier of these, so a hardware-store plane with unfamiliar castings is a Sargent more often than not. Stanley and Millers Falls also supplied them.

This matters commercially: a badged plane is usually the same tool as the branded one and sells for meaningfully less, because the name on it means nothing to collectors. If you are buying to use, hardware-store badges are the cheapest route to a decent plane there is.

To work out who made one, compare the frog seat, the lever cap shape and the lateral lever against a known example of each maker. The castings are the evidence; the badge is just paint.

What it is worth knowing before you buy

The ranking that matters is not by brand but by brand and period together:

  • Pre-war Stanley, Sargent and Millers Falls are all good, and priced Stanley > Sargent ≈ Millers Falls.
  • Post-war Stanley declines. Post-war Record does not.
  • So the cheapest good plane is usually a post-war Record or a pre-war non-Stanley.

The cross-brand size table translates between all four numbering schemes if you already know which size you want.

One thing that is not a clue

Handle wood tells you very little. Rosewood suggests earlier, beech suggests Record or later, stained hardwood suggests wartime or after — but handles are the most-replaced part on any plane, and a great many have been swapped over a century. Read the castings.

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