Bench&Brace

Identification

Which Maker Built This Plane?

How to identify the maker of a bench plane from its numbering, castings and markings - and why the number itself usually tells you before the name does.

  • updated 2026-08-29
  • 3 min read
On this page

Most identification questions start the same way. Someone has a plane that is obviously a Bailey-pattern bench plane — knob, tote, frog, lateral lever — and either the name is worn off, or it says something unhelpful like Fulton or Dunlap.

The number on it usually answers the question before the name does.

Start with the number and a tape measure

Nearly every maker encoded the sole length in the model number. Measure the sole, read the number, and the scheme they used identifies them.

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 pattern worth internalising: the length is usually in the number. Millers Falls used it directly, Sargent prefixed a 4, Record took an existing list and added a zero. Stanley is the odd one out — its numbering encodes nothing at all, so the No. 4 is nine inches and the No. 8 is twenty-four with no rule connecting them.

So if the number matches the sole length, the maker told you something. If it does not, that absence is itself a clue.

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.

Sources