A tale of Block planes

It has been a while I had some time to devote to some, somewhat, recent acquisitions.
Part of my routine is to identify what exactly I got myself into this time around :-)

Part of that, was an early Excelsior block plane.  I am well aware of the various block planes Type studies (Sellens, Bob Kaune and etc) but I recently came across this table at Timetestedtools which purport to quickly narrow down a "Type" or approx vintage.
And that is how I went down that rabbit hole quickly...  Such a slippery slope they say... :-)

The one topmost is the Excelsior body, the others came out as references.

In the end I ended up with 3 Low Angle (12 degrees) Block planes: 3 variations of the Model 60-1/2

and 3 Regular angle (20 degrees) Block planes: 9-1/4, 5306, 19

What's in a name, Excelsior??

In Stanley block planes parlance we are referring to the side look of the wings.  Your everyday block plane, have the side wings, hump, roughly centered on the sides.
The earliest Stanley, so called Excelsior's, have the hump clearly off centered toward the back.
Roughly from 1888-1898.

Excelsior, off centered side hump.

They did not stamped the model number on this side back then.

Which one is it??

That peculiar look came from Leonard Bailey line of plane's and other tools that he sold the patents to Stanley Rule & Level Co. in 1869.  Leonard came with the package deal to Stanley and was working for them in the plane department.  Any and all tool of Bailey's patent(s) made by Stanley, paid a royalty to Leonard.  If you look at the royalties paid by Stanley to Bailey, it would appear to be a very lucrative deal for Leonard.  Stanley lost no time trying to bring those numbers down.  One way was to introduced new models of their own "design" to compete in sales with the Bailey's original.
That was essentially the basis of the "falling out" between Stanley and Leonard, the amount of royalties.

And thus ensues a variety of seemingly similar block planes from Stanley.  But thank fully they can all be boiled down to two basic type and models; The Low Angle (12 degrees) represented by the Model No 60-1/2   and the regular angle (20 degrees) represented by the model no 9-1/2.
And guess what?  That is essentially which models are shown in that table, so printed and off I go...

What model do I have?

The earliest Stanley's never had their model number stamped on the side.  They were differentiated by the trim and features.  The No 9-1/2 and 60-1/2 represent the fully kitted, adjustable block planes in both 20 and 12 degrees.  Most others are derived from them, some by the material finish (plated), some by omitting some features (throat adj., Lateral adj.) and various Lever cap design.  Other than that? Same, same, down to the casting of bed, with or without the extra machining steps for some adj. mechanism.  Oh, and they came in 6 or 7 inches long beds.

The lever cap is of the earliest knuckle cap, having the patent No on it of Dec 28 1886. Patent would expire in 1903 (17 years patent)

The cup being made of cast iron, often break at the two lugs.  It is also said to be capable to induce stress cracks at the mouth of the plane.  For these reasons, the cap was redesigned in 1913.  It went from two pieces to a complex 4 parts linkage and material changes. The casting was also reinforced near the mouth, used to be thinner.

If you look at the thickness of the lugs which are pulling against the bed screw, you can guess that it would require a longer screw than normally used with the other styles of cap.

On top screw from No 9-1/4 and bottom No 19 as used with knuckle cap.

Notice also the length of the unthreaded shank.

The bed casting being the same as No 9-1/2 and No 18 (6 in beds), some would attempt to swap a cap to make a common No 9-1/2 into a more valuable No 18.  If the screw is not engaging much, it's the shorter ones with a knuckle cap (wrong)

That knuckle cap would make it either a No 18 or 19.
The difference?  No 18 is 6 in long, No 19 is 7 in long.  Mine measured 7 inches, making it a No 19 (1888-1949)

The side wings do not have the Hand-y feature milled.  Pat in 1897 introduced in 1900s

Both the bed casting and the throat plate have the "S" marking. (1880-1900)

The bed has some damages, but nothing to hurt its performance.

The iron seems proper, according to its markings.

It has the throat adjuster but no lateral adjuster (?).  Supposed to have one.
Being a loose piece it is M.I.A. :-(

The nut for the depth adjuster is RH threads (before 1898)

Top plane is No 19 RH threads, bottom is 9-1/4 LH threads.

Stanley switched threads directions around 1898

This type of cutter adjuster was patented by Leonard Bailey in 1867

Throat adjuster patent Feb 20 1894

John Walter book

Antique and Collectible Stanley Tools

Being introduced in 1894, I would had expected this cam lever to be showing the patent date.

Does not appear to have any markings...or does it?

Lateral adjuster patent 1884, 1888 (disk)

Which one of the two styles of lateral lever would it had?
The first one with the curved lip or the later one with the disk?

John Walter book

Antique and Collectible Stanley Tools

The introduction of the rotating disk at the end of the lateral lever, necessitated a bigger cut out in the web between the screw and the blade advance mechanism casting.  Was 3/16 of an inch now 3/8 in.
I was not quite sure what that meant, so I gathered a 3/16 and 3/8 drill bit stock.  It became quite obvious...

The 3/8 bit fit nicely, therefore we have the disk type of lateral adjuster.

There are only two styles of lateral lever but they were various patents dates combination on them.
- First one LL1 1888 had 3 patent dates: Pat Feb. 8, 76. Pat Oct. 21, 84 and Pat Jan. 17, 88 and STANLEY stamped on the bent down part of the lever end.
- Next one with the disk LL2 1890-1894 had 4 patent dates at first: Pat. 2-8-76, 10-21-84, 1-17-88 and 7-24-88, STANLEY stamped as before.
- Next change LL3 1898 now marked Pat, 10-21-84, 1-17-88, 7-24-88, 8-3-97 and STANLEY as before.
 - Next change LL4 1901-1904 Only three patents dates; Pat. 1-17-88, 7-24-88, 8-3-97 and STANLEY as before
- Next change LL5 1908-09.  One date remaining Pat. 8-3-97 and STANLEY  as before
- Next change LL6 1910-19 All patent dates eliminated.  STANLEY eliminated in later versions

Everything seems to point to around the turn of the 20th century.  Late 1890s to early 1900s
What does our previous table came up with?
- Excelsior body 1888-98
- Hand-y grip after 1898
- Casting marks S 1889-1902
- Lateral lever  Guessing LL3 with 4 patent dates 1898-1901
- Eccentric throat lever 1894 patent date is from 1894-1907
- Lever cap knuckle joint with pat date 1886,  1888-1904

I would then date this tool from 1894 to 1898.  Would had been nice to have original lateral lever to pin point it.

The only sticky point remaining is the eccentric lever with no markings.  Could there be some remnants of some markings??

I got this inexpensive USB microscope for about $20.  Well worth the price. It does capture snap shots or video.  Let's see what we can unearth with it.

Looking at the blade logo with it.  The logo was stamped

Part of RULE

Part of LEVEL Co

Now that we know how stamping looks like, let see that lever again.

Hard to see but I think I make up a 0 ?

As in Feb 20 94

The lever is plated and flaking heavily obscuring much.  Ill look at it again after its bath in Evaporust.

Since we had the microscope out, lets take a look at the blade edge.
It shows signs of recent sharpening.

The top part is pitting on the blade surface, lower shinier part is the bevel

Edge has some damages but is in pretty good shape

Would be curious to look at it later after its Evaporust bath.

All in all, even with the missing lateral lever, not a bad find.  Especially considering I found it at a yard sale table for $5 :-)  Should make a fine user.

Bob, with a growing pile that need to be put away...