Hand Planes with Corrugated Soles

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tdukes

New User
Eddie
Hello,

Sooo, been thinking about looking for a Stanley #6 on eBay. Most I see have the corrugated sole. I know Stanley did that for a while as a marketing thing but does that have an adverse effect on its functionality? I can see its less material getting the sole flattened. Any downside?

TIA
 

Chris C

Chris
Senior User
I have four #6's.... Three have corrugated soles. In theory the corregation makes it easier to use. I can't tell much difference.
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
Likewise here. One of my #7's or 8's is corrugated. It supposedly makes it easier to slide across the wood. Can't really tell much difference than adding a little paraffin to the sole of the non-corrugated one, but it does work just as well.
 

Bill Clemmons

Bill
Corporate Member
I too am in the "makes no difference" camp. I have some of each type and as a casual user I can't really tell a difference. Hopefully one of our true experts will chime in and let us know.
 

Rwe2156

DrBob
Senior User
There's no appreciable difference.

I will caution you extremely about buying planes off Ebay. BTDT and more often than not it was "why didn't I see that in the pic???". From bad plane irons all the way to cracked sides. I've also had a few with soles very out of flat. So bad I had to give up on them. This is because the soles on Stanley planes are fairly thin and subject to warping.

But mostly because they are generally way overpriced

There is a guy over on Lumberjocks named "Don W" that sells reconditioned planes very reasonably.
 

Gofor

Mark
Corporate Member
I have both. Do not really see a difference in use. As you said, it did make some difference when I flattened the sole. It may make a difference on a smoothing plane where you have a large smooth contact surface on both plane and board, but not on the fore[planes that I have noticed.

For kicks, I dragged out the kitchen scale and did a weight comparison (very unscientific: did not strip down to base casting, etc, just as-is out of the drawer):

Bailey #5 corrugated - 68.74 oz.
Stanley #5 smooth - 69.06 oz
net difference 0.68 oz.

Bailey #6 corrugated - 99.01 oz
Bedrock #6 smooth - 105.42 0z
net difference - 6.41 oz (probably more due to the difference in the Bailey and the Bedrock casting than the corrugation).

Go
 

Gotcha6

Dennis
Staff member
Corporate Member
"Bailey #5 corrugated - 68.74 oz.
Stanley #5 smooth - 69.06 oz
net difference 0.68 oz."

Mark, check your math..... Difference is actually 0.32 oz. Not really a lot when you get down to it.
 

Melinapex

Mark
Corporate Member
+1 on being cautious on EBay. I have bought two fixer upper #4's and while the first one was fine, the second one had a crack in the side of the casting that could not be seen until I got all the rust off. Anything that looks nice on eBay is usually overpriced IMHO..
got a new #5 from woodcraft and very happy with it.
 

Ed Fasano

Ed
Senior User
Makes no appreciable difference for a user plane. Easier to flatten (less metal). Most (c) planes tend to cost a bit less.
 
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