Bench&Brace

Dating guide

Stanley Bailey Bench Plane Type Study

Stanley never published a type study. It was reconstructed by collectors from dated catalogues, patent dates cast into the metal, and thousands of observed planes. The type numbers are a collector's convention, not a Stanley part number, and the date ranges are approximate on purpose. Stanley used up old stock: a plane assembled in 1911 from a 1908 casting and a 1912 iron is not a fake, it is a Tuesday. Date a plane by the oldest feature on its body casting, treat the iron and hardware as separately dateable parts, and expect a window of a few years rather than a year.

  • 1867–1967
  • 20 types

How to use it

  1. Work from the body casting first. Knobs, totes, irons and lever caps get swapped over a century of use; the casting does not.
  2. Read the area behind the frog. The presence and number of patent dates there is the single fastest discriminator between 1900 and 1920.
  3. Check the toe for 'BAILEY' and the bed for 'STANLEY' and 'MADE IN USA'. Each of these appeared once and never went away, so each sets a hard earliest date.
  4. Then use knob shape and the frog adjusting screw to narrow the window.
  5. Finally sanity-check the iron logo against the body date. A mismatch is common and usually means a replaced iron, not a rare variant.

If you would rather answer questions than read a table, the identify-by-marking tool does the same job interactively and intersects every feature you tick.

The types at a glance

TypeYearsFastest tell
Type 1 1867–1869 No lateral adjustment lever
Type 2 1869–1872 No lateral adjustment lever
Type 3 1872–1873 No lateral adjustment lever
Type 4 1874–1884 No lateral adjustment lever
Type 5 1885–1888 First type with a lateral adjustment lever
Type 6 1888–1892 Lateral lever present
Type 7 1893–1899 Lateral lever with a twisted end
Type 8 1899–1902 Still no 'BAILEY' on the toe
Type 9 1902–1907 'BAILEY' cast into the toe for the first time
Type 10 1907–1909 Frog adjusting screw appears behind the frog
Type 11 1910–1918 Three patent dates cast into the bed behind the frog
Type 12 1919–1924 Patent dates still behind the frog
Type 13 1925–1928 Tall knob replaces the low knob
Type 14 1929–1930 Tall knob, flat seat, Sweetheart iron
Type 15 1931–1932 'MADE IN USA' first cast into the bed
Type 16 1933–1941 Raised ring cast around the knob seat
Type 17 1942–1945 Stained hardwood knob and tote instead of rosewood
Type 18 1946–1947 Return to brass depth nut and better finish
Type 19 1948–1961 Long post-war run
Type 20 1962–1967 Kidney-shaped hole in the lever cap

Caveats that matter

  • Type numbers are a collector convention. Stanley never used them and no Stanley document defines them.
  • Overlap between types is normal. Parts bins were emptied before new parts were used, so a plane can carry features of two adjacent types.
  • Every date in this study is approximate to within a couple of years, and the very early types (1-4) are the least certain.
  • Patent dates cast into the metal set the earliest possible date of manufacture and nothing else. A 1902 patent date can appear on a plane made in 1918.
  • The type study describes standard-production bench planes. Bedrocks, transitionals and specialty planes have their own sequences and only partly follow this one.

Sources