The Stanley No. 97 Cabinet Maker’s Edge Plane In late 1869 or early 1870, shortly after Leonard Bailey started working at the Stanley Rule & Level Company, he produced the “chisel plane” shown in Figure 1 below.[i] This heavy bodied plane is 9 15/16” long and 2 3/8” wide and the body is a cast […]

Leonard Bailey appears to have begun experimenting with  and manufacturing vertical post planes sometime in 1860. These planes are called “vertical post” planes because of the two vertically positioned threaded rods located behind the rocking frog. The rocking frog is held in place by a pin that is inserted through the sidewalls of the plane […]

This is the first of what is intended to be an occasional series describing some of the Stanley Model Shop tools in my collection and sometimes giving opinions and historical tidbits relating to them.  Many of the Model Shop tools are prototypes and, thus, are either one-offs or very limited production models.  Although information about […]

The Early American Industries 2018 Annual Meeting is only about 3 months away.  On May 23rd through May 26th, 2018, we’ll celebrate EAIA’s 85th anniversary during our annual meeting in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania.  What follows are a few historical facts, some teasers, and hopefully an enticement or two that will convince you to […]

Our Purpose:  The Early American Industries Association Preserves and Presents Historic Trades, Crafts, and Tools and Interprets Their Impact on Our Lives  The Early American Industries Association was founded in 1933 in the midst of the Great Depression.  The following is a summary of the early history of our organization. Loring McMillen who was Vice-President […]

The 2018 EAIA Annual Meeting Will Be Wednesday, May 23rd thru Saturday, May 26th, 2018 – Save the Dates! Come and join us at the Early American Industries Association’s 85th Anniversary in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and we’ll celebrate in style as we experience the industrial and cultural history of Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley and the equally fascinating […]

What a fantastic 2017 Early American Industries Association meeting at Old Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts on May 17th thru May 20th!  We enjoyed a beautiful venue, sunny warm weather, amazing displays, wonderful lectures, workshops, auctions, great demonstrations, and fascinating displays.  We learned, had fun, relaxed, renewed old friendships and made new ones. We savored wonderful food […]

From its inception the Stanley Rule & Level Company was very attentive to its customers needs and desires.  Their salesmen were instructed to listen carefully to comments and suggestions from their customers about the tools they manufactured and bring that information back to the foremen in the shop.  Because of the nature of the “inside […]

This post is a bit longer than those I’ve written in the past, but I hope you’ll enjoy the story that’s in here about another interesting plane from the Stanley Model Shop. 1873 to 1879 were tough years for the Stanley Rule & Level Company as well as the rest of the U.S. economy.  The […]

It’s late in the year 1875, and Justus Traut and the men in his shop at Stanley Rule & Level Company are still diligently working on a cutter adjustment mechanism for the Stanley #110 block plane. Traut and Henry Richards, one of the “mechanics” working in Traut’s  shop, produced the block plane prototype shown in […]