Stanley No. 71 Router Plane

How to identify it

• Two round knobs either side of a central post carrying an L-shaped cutter.
• The 71 has an open throat; the 71-1/2 has a closed one. Both take the same cutters.
• A brass depth-adjustment nut and, on later examples, a fence and a shoe that screws over the throat.

Photograph needed: Stanley No. 71 Router Plane - overall view, plus a close-up of the toe and bed markings

Buying and using

There is no power-tool substitute for a router plane when you need a dado bottom that is exactly parallel to the face of the board. Prices have risen sharply as hand-tool woodworking has grown; buy on cutter completeness.

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. 071 Router Plane — Record
• Stanley No. 71-1/2 Router Plane — Stanley

Completeness checklist

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

• The cutters - a 71 with one cutter is half a tool
• The depth stop / adjusting nut
• The closing shoe, often missing
• The fence, usually missing

What it is worth

• body, one cutter $45–$90
• good, multiple cutters $100–$190
• complete with shoe and fence $210–$400

Estimated USD range as of 2026-Q1, from a sample of about 100 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