Stanley STANLEY 5-12-020 6.1/4" Block Plane C/w Pouch

I needed quality and this is!

Very nice plane, good size. Adjustable throat and blade depth. Sleeve case nice to store it, or can slide on your belt.

I have one from about 30 years ago and bought this new one as a gift. Comparing them, the fit and finish on the newer plane is rougher than on the older model. However, that is mostly a cosmetic issue. It does seem to work as well as the older model.

The picture shows a smooth plane with no grinding marks, they are there and deep. I spent a lot of time soothing out the sole and sides. It is not quite square. If you are a little bit picky about your work spend another $100.00 and get a good plane. I needed when I got it or I needed it when I got it or I would have sent it back.

This is a sad product from a once great company in building wood planes. The frog is out of alignment so there is no way to "square" the blade to the surface of the wood and the bottom is so far from flat there is no way I am going to waste my time trying to level it. The mouth is also 5-10 degrees out of perpendicular to the sides. I started trying to flatten the bottom until I realized that the mouth was out of square and so was the frog and gave up.Total waste of money. Going back to WoodRiver from now on.

So, this is a regular 60 ¼, but not well made. The casting is not well finished, and it needs a lot of filing, flattening, smoothing, and everything you can throw at it. First, the bottom is not surface ground; it was done on a belt sander with 40 grit. A green banana is flatter than the bottom of one of these things. What was most annoying was that there was a precipitous dip all around the mouth. It was so bad that I had to first belt send the bottom. I wish I had a surface grinder; that would have made it quicker. There was a crud under the adjustable mouth. It took me hours to get it flat, starting on a 60-grit belt and then moving through the grits to a 1000-grit Waterstone. The bed is also far from a flat. I had to file it flat; all the edges are rough and have burrs. The back of the blade was not horrible, but it was convex, so it was harder to flatten. Overall, it took a better part of the evening, about 4 hours, to flatten, smooth, sharpen, and deburr everything. Now it is a good, reliable 60 ¼ like the old ones that were given proper treatment at the factory. Is it worth the price? Well, it is if you like to restore planes, not if you have no clue how to do it. If you did it, get a Lie Nielsen or Veritas and just use it.

It came faster than Amazon had said. I open the package and started looking at the block plane. 1st thing that stuck out was the adjustable shoe was not level with the plane body. I figured something must be stuck so I disassembled the shoe and couldn't find anything that would cause it to be proud of the body. The part nearest the blade was level, the part of the shoe farthest from the blade was not flush. And one side was more proud than the other.The grind on the bottom was rough, I'll need to work it smooth. The plane iron was sharp, but will also need to be honed so scary sharp. The actions of the adjustments are smooth. Could be a little smoother but that will come with being used. As of now I haven't used it, and I won't until I grind the shoe level with the sole. The grind on the iron is 21º but since my Worksharp only does 20º it'll get a shallow microbevel or I'll just change it to 20º.

Quality control is nonexistent I’ll never buy modern Stanley planes again