スタンレー112136 No.4プレミアムベンチプレーン

I own several Lie Nielsen planes which out perform my old Stanleys and Record planes by a good margin, they look great, are built with care and craftsmanship and do exactly what they should, no fuss, no issues. I vowed I would never buy another Stanley, as they have been nothing but a disappointment by comparison. I had some tricky maple to finish and needed a new smoother, tough decision, pay nearly £300 for the Lie Nielsen or take a punt on this new Stanley for less than a third of the price. I took the plunge after reading (very few are out there) some positive reviews, and how glad I am! This plane is as far from recent Stanleys and as close to the current USA made market leaders as you could wish for. Not quite as well finished, but these are only minor cosmetics, the functional bits are great. The plane is hefty, straight, solid and feels like a quality product. The cutter comes sharp and adjusts easily, the shavings are even, wafer thin and the mouth adjusts to nearly nothing quickly and easily. It has made short work of my maple worktop and I'm sure will rapidly become my favourite, go to plane. When you consider the price, the quality is more than close enough to justify the purchase, I've got a bargain, and am delighted with the saved cash I still have in my pocket. If you have concerns of recent Stanley planes' quality, dull, soft cutters and poorly finished castings, don't worry, this one is great!

Good quality plane

A small visitor to my shop tried to pick up my No4 off the bench. And, it hit the floor and cracked the body. You have to watch toddlers around attractive tools, and I should have put it away earlier. So, I was instantly, and unexpectedly in the market for a new No4. After reading reviews and checking prices this seemed worth a gamble. I haven’t really used it much. I have at this point just turned it and checked it. Out of the box I checked it with a machinist square, and it seems true flat and square. I put a couple of marks on the sole and started with 600-grit black carbide sand paper. All the marks were gone in five passes. So, the sole came flat. The sides were flat and at ninety to the sole checking with the high dollar Starret square that lives in its box in the drawer of precision tools. I can’t get them any better. so, I left them alone. Then I honed the blade starting at 600, and going up-to 2000-grit. Before I put the blade back in, I took a file and relieved the sharp edges of the body just a bit. Then I set it up, and tried a few passes. Good clean shavings. Summary: Pluses, Quality, as good as my Lee Valley Veritas planes. Wish it had the two set screws they have, to keep the front of the blade centered. But I own a drill press and some taps. If it bothers me after I use it for a bit, I can install them. Minuses, there are no available blades. The blade looks pretty close to a Kung blade out of Germany which looks like it might work, and I may decide to get one and see. If it does, I’ll come back and update. Value, when I ordered this plane it was $134, with shipping. At that price it is an outstanding value. But the price is now $238. At that price it is still seems to be a good value.

I have just received the plane and tried it on one board. Love it! Quality wise it is much better built and machined to a higher precision than Bailey #7 that I was disappointed with. Sweetheart #4 has a polished sole which is dead flat, both sides also flat and at perfect 90 degrees to the sole, Norris type adjuster that allows increasing depth by small increments (it has a clever mechanism with screw threads of two different sizes that effectively act as a "gearbox"), thick stable blade of A2 steel, nice wooden knob and tote etc. I was able to take really thin shavings of wood as advertised! Perhaps the only little thing that could be improved is the depth adjuster that does not engage immediately when one starts turning it in opposite direction. For example, if one has sticked its blade out too much and would now like to pull it back a bit, it will take some time before turning the knob actually engages the adjuster. So, one may end up pulling it in too much if it fails to notice when the blade starts actually moving by either feeling increased resistance or watching it. This is only a small inconvenience, I would say. Update Dec 30, 2015: I checked the manual of one of my Veritas planes that I had received in the meantime and learnt that if a user happens to stick the blade out too much he/she should first pull it back in a little bit more than actually needed, and then increase the depth again. Probably, because every screw thread has some play (even if it is only a fraction of a millimeter) and this way the blade will be resting on the right side of the thread, i.e. will not possibly move in while planing. So, from that perspective the design of Stanley Sweetheart depth adjuster is comparable to the one from Veritas. They both have play, the only difference is in the amount of play each one of them has.

1-La livraison a été ultra rapide, même en période de fêtes (me mettant même un doute sur le fait qu'il soit vraiment importé de GB... mais bon!) 2- c'est mon tout 1er rabot, la 1ère fois que j'utilisais ce genre d'outil. Et après quelques tests et quelques essais de réglages, les 1ers copeaux sortent sans forcer...C'est un vrai régal.... vraiment. 3- je trouvais la lame très bien affûtée d'origine, mais ayant lu partout sur les forums que tout outil doit être affûté avant usage, j'ai raffuté la mienne. C'est un peu mieux effectivement, mais je confirme que c'est déjà très bien affûté sortie d'usine. 4- le rabot est magnifique, les poignées en bois.... perso j'adore, très agréable au touché. Les finitions du corps sont excellentes, bien ebavuré, et celui ci semble très robuste. 5- mon seul questionnement reste sur l'avantage (ou non) du verrouillage du fer/ contre-fer par une vis, plutôt que par un système classique de "levier" comme l'on trouve régulièrement sur les rabots?..... malgré tout.... ça fonctionne très bien 6- j'avais pris l'option (comme je le fais systématiquement désormais) de bien réfléchir mes achats, mais de viser des outils de qualité plutôt que des entrées de gammes même pour un 1er investissement, pour être certain d'avoir entre les mains un produit qui fonctionne (et ne pas me heurter a un échec a faire des copeaux, ne sachant pas si c'est mon geste, ou l'outil qui déconne!)..... Et bien je ne regrette pas du tout l'argent investit dans ce très beau rabot qui, j'en suis certain, vieillira avec moi :-)