Stanley Bullnose plane

[TimK]

Hi,

I recently picked up the Veritas medium shoulder plane (still in the package) as a birthday present to myself.
While I was at the store, talking to one of the staff, he had mentioned the Stanley 90 Bullnose plane as a possible alternative to the shoulder plane. Now he didn't say it was an exact match but thought it would perform similar tasks. Well, I didn't tell him at the time but I have one of those Stanleys that I picked up from a neighbour when I bought his collection of waterstones (he threw the Stanley in, as an incentive for me to buy all of his stones). I've never used the Stanley.

I spent 30 minutes last night tuning up the Stanley and realized my neighbour may never have used it, the blade seemed nearly new.

So here is my question...as I am very much a novice, should I keep both or save some money and just use the Stanley? I bought the shoulder plane for some M&T work coming up for the bench I am building.
I guess I could always sell the Stanley as they are worth $115 new.

Thanks for listening,
Tim

[derekcohen]

Tim

A shoulder plane and a bullnose plane are not the same and do quite different tasks. They are not interchangeable.

The bullnose is designed for planing stopped rabbets. The Stanley #90 has the extra abilty to be used as a chisel plane. That is the only reason I have hung onto mine since otherwise I may have used it a couple of time in the past few years. It is not suited for trimming shoulders. It lacks sufficient registration (at the nose) to do so.

Keep the Medium and sell the #90, if you plan to keep just one.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jim in Burlington]

Really you can trim tennon's with a wide sharp chisel. The big downfall of the stanley is it's very hard to put back together with the nose nice and square to the sole. I gave mine away after buying the LV Bullnose plane. Doubtfull you could get any more than 50 for it unless it's old, mint and you have the box that's what collectors look for.