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Though the new Stanley premium handplanes won’t hit stores for a month or more, the company has released these photos of the planes that are going to be used on some packaging. These photos were taken by the company’s United Kingdom employees.
Up until now, we’ve only seen computer renderings of the planes. Though the resolution of the photos here don’t really allow you to see all the detail, the tools look quite good under Photoshop’s magnifying glass.
In case you’ve actually been woodworking (instead of reading or writing about it on the Internet), you can read all the details about the new line of planes here.
– Christopher Schwarz
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Renderings vs pictures:
A couple of things make me think they’re still renderings. The "scratches" you mention aren’t scratches. One of them is the back edge of the slot for the lever cap. I’m not sure what the scratch/line behind the slot is. A big giveaway in computer renderings are the reflections from a light source. In a real picture, light reflecting off an object usually washes out all detail. In these renderings, there are reflections but it’s as if the plane is matte, so detail comes through rather than being whited-out. The brass knobs on the planes have knurling that would be visible in photographs. The renderings have lots of detail but a lot of the knurling is missing. Look at the knurling on the shoulder plane–it just doesn’t look right. The knurling on the block planes is very good — except on the depth of cut adjusters. Overall, the images look 3-D but they lack depth, if that makes sense. 😉
maybe Stanley will make a low angle plane with a bed angle of 20 or 22 degrees just like a Hotley or Marcou. Or maybe I’m dreaming too much.
What makes you think these are renderings rather than pictures? They look like product photos to me–notice the scratches on the lever cap in the top image (which is a funny name for something that no longer has a lever on it).
I’m confused. I was looking for pictures but all I see are more renderings. Am I missing the pictures of the actual product or do we only have newer renderings?
The thing that strike me the most on the No 4 is the fact that they have abandoned the infamous bailey adj design in favor of something like the Norris adj such as usd on LV planes. Still wondering what that brass nut under the frog does??
Anyone has any ideas?
Bob, who is glad to see a renaissance of hand tools WW.
Even Disston is trying a comeback with their new ‘deluxe’ dovetail saw
Interesting "pictures."
They’re still computer renderings — even though they are very nice computer models.
I’m intrigued by Stanley’s offerings. If I didn’t have similar planes from LN or Veritas I’d be tempted to try the bench planes. I might have to give the block planes a try — just to take the place of my old Stanley block planes.
I do disagree with one response — Lie Nielsen can’t drop their prices in response to these offerings, and I wouldn’t want them to. Besides, LN just raised their prices due to the cost of raw materials.
When you’re a market leader, you don’t cut your margins or cheapen your products to match a competitor. Stanley is competing with Kunz and Groz planes — not Lie Nielsen or Veritas customers. Although, they may knock a few LN/LV customers off the fence. 😉
I am very curious to see how many of those whom this company has ignored for over forty years will all of a sudden jump back on the Stanley bandwagon.
I do not think that Lee Valley or Lie-Neilson have much to worry about though. In fairness to Stanley, the LV and L-N planes all started out life as a good copies of old Stanley planes. Over the years, though, the copiers tweaked and improved the basic designs until they had products that stood far and above the originals. In viewing these photos I can see some of their improvements added to Stanley’s new line, but not all of them, nor do I see any attempts to substitute these features with one’s of Stanley’s own design.
I think this is going to be a perfect example of the students advancing beyond the teacher.
Peace,
Mitchell
Interesting to see what Lie Neilson and Veritas will do about the price of the Stanley plans. Maybe Lie Nielson will have a price drop or maybe not. can’t wait for your review of these plans hope that you will do one.
The mouth on that shoulder plane looks rather huge. Perhaps it was not properly set for the picture.
Nice the Stanley seems to be actually trying to make planes that will do what planes are intended to again, as opposed to using pot metal and plastic to make paper weights that slightly resemble actual wood planes as they have been doing for the last several decades.