Some interesting research on hand planes.

[Coyote Jim]

A week ago I bought a Stanley No. 45. The one I bought was complete and in amazing condition. From what I can tell my "new" plane was made between 1905 and 1914. I am very excited to get this thing tuned up and working.

I'm not sure why but I thought it would be interesting to look this tool up in the old Stanley Tool Catalog. I found a .pdf of the Stanley catalog that was published in 1914 which is the same year that WW1 started. Here is a picture of the page.

Kind of cool right? Well here is where things get interesting. As you can see, in 1914 this super complex plane came with 21 different cutters, was packed in a "substantial box" and it cost $7.00

Taking into account inflation, $7.00 from 1914 is equivalent to $179.59 in 2019. $179.59 is a tough pill to swallow no matter what time you live in, that box better be pretty damn substantial. Well lets dig a bit deeper.

Stanley published another catalog in 1934, just 5 years before WW2 started. By 1934 the #45 had gone through a few minor changes (like micro adjustment on the fence).
Here is the page out of the 1934 catalog.

As you can see here the plane now comes equipped with 23 cutters instead of 21 like it did in 1914. It still packed in a substantial box but now the substantial box is a "neat substantial box".

The cost of the plane in 1934 is now $15.00. Adjust $15.00 for inflation and you get $287.19! Yikes! In just 20 years they jacked the price up from $179.59 to $287.19 which is a 60% increase for basically the same product. How "neat" could one box be?!?! But how about we go a little deeper?

Stanley published a catalog in 1958 (24 years later, the Korean War had just ended), lets have a look at that one shall we?

The plane still comes with 23 cutters but there is no mention of the substantial box (neat or otherwise). And here in 1958 the plane costs $47.45. Lets adjust 1954 money to 2019 money and we are at $418.57! What?!?! That is 46% higher than 1934 price and a 133% increase from 1914 price. Keep in mind that there have been only very minor changes to the plane over the course of 44 years.

Let's compare these prices to a modern day equivalent. Veritas makes a combination plane that is similar to the Stanley #45. The Veritas combination plane comes with only one cutter (many other cutters are available though) and it retails for $399.00. (Each additional cutter is ~$16.00, so $16.00 x 20 cutters = $320.00 in additional cutters.) That is within 10% of Stanley at their most expensive.

So why the huge increase is the price of this plane over the course of the first half of the 20th century? I have no idea. I do have a theory though. My theory is based off of zero research, zero facts and only 100% my gut and should not be taken as anything else other than one person who had a difficult time paying attention in school's opinion.

Theory: 1914 was pre-labor laws. The 40 hour work week did not exist. There was no such thing as "over time". There was no such thing as "minimum wage". You could also have 10 year old boys working in factories. The cost of labor was possibly the cheapest part of making this plane back in 1914. So my guess (and this truly is just a guess) is labor costs.

If anyone has any idea for this price increase that is based on facts or actual knowledge and is not just a guess like I did can you please fill us in?

For funsies, I also checked out the price of some other planes over the years. The below chart shows those prices.
The planes listed are:
#45 which I have already described.
#5 which is possibly the most common plane in existence.
#8 which is the largest plane that Stanley made.
#55 which is a combination plane that is WAY more complex than the #45 and came with 55 cutters! There were an additional 41 cutters this plane could use. The 55 was called "The King of All Planes".
#71 which is a router plane.
I also added the price of modern Veritas and/or Lie-Nielsen planes just to be extra fancy.

Couple notes from the chart. 1)The Veritas #45 equivalent only has 1 cutter like I mentioned above. 2) Veritas does not make a #8, the price listed there is for a #7. 3) Lie-Nielsen tools are hella expensive but it is my understanding that they are worth every penny.

Thank you for reading, I hope you found all this as interesting as I did and if any of you have any insights then let me know.

[Chestnut]

32 minutes ago, Coyote Jim said:

Lie-Nielsen tools are hella expensive but it is my understanding that they are worth every penny.

Lets make this truly interesting. The Lie-Nielsen tools are a copy with improvements over the Bedrock versions of the stanly plane. So you should be comparing the #4 to the Bedrock 604 the #5 to the Bedrock 605 ect.

The other part that I find interesting is the used price of a Vintage #5 is nearly 20x higher. Though that 20 fold increase doesn't even cover inflation.

[Coop]

I bought the same plane, new, in 1934. I guess I should have sold it right after the Korean War! Neat thread Jim! 

[Coyote Jim]

2 hours ago, Chestnut said:

Lets make this truly interesting. The Lie-Nielsen tools are a copy with improvements over the Bedrock versions of the stanly plane. So you should be comparing the #4 to the Bedrock 604 the #5 to the Bedrock 605 ect.

Here is the Bedrock Page from the 1914 catalog.

This is the Bedrock Page from the 1934 catalog

Pricing with inflation and Lie-Nielsen.

[Chestnut]

Huh super interesting. I thought the bedrock line would be a lot more expensive. Knowing what i know today they are easily worth the price over the regular line.

[LarryA]

I recently inherited my dad's collection of 68 Wood Planes, various different styles and conditions.  I came across this post while researching them to be a more informed seller....wow....this is incredible!  Thank you for the research and for sharing!