Quality Issues of 1976 Vintage Made in England Stanley No. 4 Hand Plane

I bought this 1976 made in England Stanley No. 4 hand plane to convert it to a scrub plane. However, with original box, original quick start manual, and gorgeous knob and handle, I was hesitate to make the conversion. Could this good looking plane be tuned to work as a fine smoothing plane? When I start to take it apart and look at the inside, the answer is a maybe.

The lever cap

The metal piece in the back is not centered around the lever cam. That’s an easy fix. Get a block of wood, tap tap tap! Done!

The cap iron and blade

Decent quality.

The frog

The lateral adjustment lever is tight, which I am really happy about. The lever cap retaining screw is jiggling in the hole. Points deducted. The screw hole is tapped off center.

The depth adjustment wheel is made of chrome plated steel. Not as pretty as the brass stuff.

The sole

Frog contact points are much smaller compare to planes made before the 60s. The tapped holes for the knob rod and handle rod are off center.

On the inside of one of the wings, there is a bump in the casting.

There are rough grinding marks in the leading edge and in the rear edge.

But the the bottom is quite thick which is nice.

The knob and the handle

They are very pretty. The nuts are made of chrome plated steel.

The heel of the handle has a smaller diameter than the one from pre-60s handle.

Summary

Cosmetic issues

• Rough grinding on the leading edge and on the rear edge of the sole.
• Bump on the inside of the left wing.
• Chrome plated knob nut, handle nut, and depth adjustment wheel.

Other issues

• Loose lever cap retaining screw hole.
• Small frog contact points on the sole.

If I can live with the cosmetic issues, loose lever cap retaining screw hole is not a big deal because it is under tension in use which shouldn’t move much. Small frog contact points on the sole theoretically means less stable frog, but with proper tightened frog retaining screw, unstable frog should not be an issue. So this plane could definitely be used as a scrub plane, or an OK smoothing plane. I am not 100% sure it could be a fine smoother.

In my shop, this plane is on the shelf because I am trying out using No. 5 as my scrub plane instead of a No. 4. Plus, I already have a pretty decent smoother.