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Block planes Lie Nielsen Stanley

Stanley 140 Rabbet & Block Plane

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Stanley 140 Rabbet & Block Plane

I’ve just finished cleaning up this Stanley 140 and tried it out. The 140 is a versatile plane which can be used as a normal block plane (with the removable side plate fixed on) and as a rabbet plane with the side plate taken off. The side plate is removed by loosening the screw at either end which releases it’s purchase on the pins on the plate.(These aren’t the original screws, they should have flat heads).
The design of the plane means the front portion has very little support once the side plate is off, however, and the planes benefit sometimes from being trued through ‘lapping’. In the worst cases, putting the plane through it’s paces in ‘rabbet-mode’ through tough grain, can lead to a fracture on the weak point.
The plane has a 20 degree skew iron which has a slight skew on it’s bevel, so it approaches tricky grain at a useful compound angle.
All in all, a very nice little plane showing some really original features and with a design that was so good, it’s been copied by Lie Nielsen, (like most of the Stanley planes) and improved with heavier grade materials.