Stanley No. 45 Combination Plane

How to identify it

• Two steel rods carrying a fence on one side and a sliding section on the other, with the cutter clamped between body and slider.
• Nickel plating on the castings, usually flaking at the edges by now.
• Later examples carry more cutters and a slightly revised depth stop. Cutters are stamped with their width.

Photograph needed: Stanley No. 45 Combination Plane - overall view, plus a close-up of the toe and bed markings

Buying and using

Buy on completeness. A body with three cutters is a paperweight; a full boxed set with both rod pairs is a usable tool and worth several times as much. Individual replacement cutters are readily available secondhand, which makes filling gaps practical.

Other makers' answer to the same problem

These share a design lineage rather than a size. Each is its own tool with its own dimensions, and no parts interchange.

• Record No. 405 Multi-Plane — Record

Completeness checklist

Missing parts drive the price of this model more than condition does. Check for:

• Both fence rods (short and long pairs were supplied)
• The sliding section
• The depth stop and its screw
• The fence, with its rosewood face intact
• The cutter box and cutters - the single biggest driver of value
• The slitting cutter and its stop, almost always missing

What it is worth

• body only, few cutters $50–$110
• good, most parts and cutters $130–$260
• complete boxed set, excellent $300–$600

Estimated USD range as of 2026-Q1, from a sample of about 90 sales. manually filtered sold listings Confidence: medium.

These are researched estimates for a private sale in average light, not an appraisal. Condition, completeness and type move a price further than any of these bands do.

Sources

• reference-site
  Patrick Leach's Blood & Gore (Stanley plane model-by-model commentary) — Patrick Leach
• book
  Stanley Tools: Guide to Identity and Value — John Walter