The Stanley Bench Plane Dating Page

<BODY BACKGROUND="images/wood_back.gif"> <IMG SRC="home_title.gif" ALT="The Stanley Bench Plane Dating Page"> <P> <DL> <DT><IMG SRC="/images/b1.gif" ALIGN=BOTTOM><FONT SIZE=+2> Welcome!</FONT> <DD>If you have a Stanley bench plane and you want to know roughly when it was made, you've come to the right place. Otherwise perhaps you'd be happier <A HREF="http://www.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Relationships/Dating/"> elsewhere.</A> <P> <DT><IMG SRC="images/b3.gif" ALIGN=BOTTOM><FONT SIZE=+2> How to use this page</FONT> <DD>Start by reading <A HREF="patrick.html"> Patrick Leach's comments on Stanley plane dating.</A> Then check out the <A HREF="dating_flowchart.html">Plane Dating Flowchart.</A> If you thirst for heaps of data on plane dating, visit the <A HREF="type_study.html">Plane Type Study</A> or the <A HREF="timeline.html">Plane Feature Timeline</A>. <P> <DT><IMG SRC="images/b5.gif" ALIGN=BOTTOM><A HREF="dating_flowchart.html"> <FONT SIZE=+2> Plane Dating Flowchart</FONT></A> <DD>Get your bench plane in hand (unless you have it's features <EM>memorized</EM>) and start answering questions. This page leads you down a hypertext flowchart to determine your plane type. It includes links to Patrick Leach's original <A HREF="type_study.html">Plane Type Study</A> and the <A HREF="timeline.html">Plane Feature Timeline</A>. <P> <DT><IMG SRC="images/b7.gif" ALIGN=BOTTOM><A HREF="dating_flowchart_ascii.html"> <FONT SIZE=+2> One-Page Plane Dating Flowchart </FONT></A> <DD>Same as above, but in ASCII art instead of hypertext. Also, Steve Turner has made a fancy <A HREF="flowchart.ps">postscript version of the flowchart</A> you can use to date planes while out in the field. <P> <DT><IMG SRC="images/b9.gif" ALIGN=BOTTOM><A HREF="ts_1_frame.html"> <FONT SIZE=+2> Plane Type Study</FONT></A> <DD>Here is Patrick Leach's more complete version of the type study, in hypertext form. <P> <DT><IMG SRC="images/b12.gif" ALIGN=BOTTOM><A HREF="tl_about_frame.html"> <FONT SIZE=+2> Plane Feature Timeline</FONT></A> <DD>This page shows you when various bench plane features were introduced and eliminated, so you can hopefully make sense of planes that don't exactly match the type study. <P> <DT><IMG SRC="images/b13.gif" ALIGN=BOTTOM> <A HREF="index_old.html" TARGET="_top"> <FONT SIZE=+2> Old Version of this Dating Page</FONT></A> <DD>You might find this version useful if you don't care for all the pictures in the <A HREF="start_flowchart.html">Plane Dating Flowchart</A>. <P> <DT><IMG SRC="images/b14.gif" ALIGN=BOTTOM><FONT SIZE=+2> Acknowledgements</FONT> <DD>The information in this Web page is derived from a type study done by Roger Smith, in his book "Patented Transitional & Metallic Planes in America." Patrick Leach reformatted the type study and added comments based on his experience with Stanley planes. Jay converted the type study to hypertext and added the plane dating flowchart and feature timeline. Stan Faullin helped by providing some of the pictures used in the <A HREF="start_flowchart.html">Plane Dating Flowchart</A>, and Steve Turner provided the PostScript version of the flowchart. </DL> <P> I welcome your comments on the usefulness of this page. Let me know if I can improve it, especially if you find any errors. Thanks! <P> <CENTER><A HREF="../index.html"> <IMG SRC="images/back.gif"></A></CENTER> <IMG SRC="images/plane2_shaving_bar.gif"><BR> Last modified: February 10, 2002<P>