STANLEY No. 4 Sweetheart Premium Bench Plane with Long Life A2 Steel, 1-12-0136

I own several Lie Nielsen planes which out perform my old Stanleys and Record planes by a good margin, they look great, are built with care and craftsmanship and do exactly what they should, no fuss, no issues. I vowed I would never buy another Stanley, as they have been nothing but a disappointment by comparison. I had some tricky maple to finish and needed a new smoother, tough decision, pay nearly £300 for the Lie Nielsen or take a punt on this new Stanley for less than a third of the price. I took the plunge after reading (very few are out there) some positive reviews, and how glad I am! This plane is as far from recent Stanleys and as close to the current USA made market leaders as you could wish for. Not quite as well finished, but these are only minor cosmetics, the functional bits are great. The plane is hefty, straight, solid and feels like a quality product. The cutter comes sharp and adjusts easily, the shavings are even, wafer thin and the mouth adjusts to nearly nothing quickly and easily. It has made short work of my maple worktop and I'm sure will rapidly become my favourite, go to plane. When you consider the price, the quality is more than close enough to justify the purchase, I've got a bargain, and am delighted with the saved cash I still have in my pocket. If you have concerns of recent Stanley planes' quality, dull, soft cutters and poorly finished castings, don't worry, this one is great!

Over the last couple of years I've discovered that old fashioned hand planes are a great addition to any woodworkers shop. Yes, I know that's always been the case but like most people of my age and younger we have been brought up with vast array's of power tools that have consigned many older hand items to the history books. Planes up to a point have suffered with this and to my discredit I thought that they had little use today. But I was wrong. Having developed an interest in better quality woodworking - thanks to the American magazine 'Fine Woodworking,' - I decided to dig out my old planes and set them up properly and make sure they are sharp. Once I'd done this I discovered that even today when we are buried under the weight of electrical tools, a good hand plane can really help get a good finish and speed up certain tasks. So having sorted out a couple of the Stanley planes I wanted a 'better' standard of plane and of course looked at the likes of Lie-Nielson and Veritas which are lovely but damned expensive. Stanley now have a range of planes aimed at the craftsmen end of the scale but not with the wallet busting costs of the Lie-Nielson etc. I think they have nailed it to be honest. The general fit and finish is top notch and when in use this does feel like a quality item in your hands. Adjustments are easy and accurate and the blade is A2 tool steel which holds a great edge for longer. Comes packed in a cardboard box that evokes old fashioned workmanship which is nonsense but adds to the buyer appeal. Blade was sharp from the box, but I put a slight curve on it and honed it to a very fine edge. As an engineer by profession I have learned a long time ago about sharpening, so that holds no fear. I tend to make most of the sharpening on emery cloth or 3m Scary Sharp paper and then finish off with Japanese wetstones. This is the best of the three bench planes I have and is set to take very fine shavings. In general I find that getting different cuts always a bit fiddly as there is always a bit of backlash no matter how good the plane so I prefer to have each plane set to cut differently and use whichever one is appropriate for the job. If like me you are a half decent woodworker but deep down know that spending the eye watering amounts on a really high end plane is more about looks than reality then this is a great compromise. Great plane for the money.

Takes a little setting up like all planes but when you have it's quality in the hand. The box and presentation is excellent too.

The design is great but there are a few drawbacks due to poor workmanship. Sides were a bit off from being square and the sole was flat enough. The paint job is terrible, and the black paint is chipping off in some places. The tote is awesome, a clear improvement compared to the classic Bailey design. Works well either pushing or pullin. Front knob on the other had is about the same as in Bailey design which might work for some, but I would have preferred wides knob (as in Kunz plus planes) to help when pulling. Blade adjustment in a bit something to get used to. Both directions have a lot of play and the blade ofthen moves horizontally when cutting depth is being reduced. Probably something that I do wrong, as the behavior has decreased over time. Nevertheless, the depth is easy to adjust while pushing the plane, but it requires both thumb and index finger. Needless to say, the A2 blade is a huge improvement over the standard blade. With the quick mouth adjustment and rock solid, chatter free blade bed, this plane is versitile enough to do both roughing and final smoothing. When using on a shooting board, the plane was easily able to cut continous shaving from oak, something I would not expect from the current Bailey plane with it's wobly blade bed and inferior blade material. Considering the pricing of this plane, I have issues recommending it if you feel able to live with slightly non square sides and poor paint job.

I've been using this plane for several weeks on reclaimed oak and softer woods. Very little initial tuning needed, a gentle wipe across a dimond plate confirmed the sole is flat. I was a little doubtful about the adjustable throat at the front, but the mechanism is smooth and seems well fitted. Back of the iron was almost flat, just the tiniest hollow and it took very little work with 100 diamond followed by finer stone and then polish to get a mirror finish and the same for the bevel, that job is a one-off task for every new plane, and this was about as flat as I have ever seen. In use - I have an older no 4, well tuned up and I thought that was good, but this is in a different league. Smooth clean full length shaving that means all the attention is on controlling the tool, not pressing down or forcing. Taking out saw marks etc is painless. It took a short while to get used to the ajustments but now they are second nature. Blade is hard and holds edge well.

Good looking plane, square and nicely finished, with almost ready to use. Blade is well prepared, but you should always add scondary or micro bevel. The main problem with this plane is completelly loose norris style adjuster. It is full of backlash. The blade can move a lot on its own! First it take couple of full turns of the adjuster to move blade in the oposite direction, second moving it from side to side usually mess op the whole setup because it might for instance cause the blade to release tension and it would not only change side to side, but also push the whole blade forward making bigger cut. Second it is hard to get good tension on all the screws for it to work fine, if you take it to tight the blade will not protrude untill it moves to far and then you have to take couple of full turns back and couple of full turns forward again to account for the backlash. This the whole setup can become loose and move if you hold it by blade or cap iron (i.e. when shooting or pulling the plane). Well it is not exactly indetend to be used as such, but i did not have that problem with other planes. Can you get good shavings with this plane - absolutelly and the plane itself does not need extra preparation, just need adjusting the blade. The backlash is an issue, but it mostly has tendency to move one way (backwards because of resistance of the cut wood) so you can take slightly bigger shavings but will have problems taking smaller. In essence you should always end up pushing the blade forward even if you wanted to make smaller cut (move back a bigger bit, move forward until you feel the slack is out). That said if you are a beginer, it would cause you pain. Your will be better of with bailey style adjuster that has separate depth and side to side control. You could also go expensive way of a proper noris style adjuster plane like Veritas. It took me days to feel how to adjust this one and I don't touch the setting once I get it right (nor I sharpen it often enough :/) so I don't have to set it up again. On other hand it took me 5 minutes with sharpening the blade to setup Veritas plane right out of the box! There is almost no backlash there and it takes few degrees, not full turns to move blade back and forth. So, if you like to know everything about your tools and the details of how to setup plane correctly... you might be better of we 4 cheap made in india or china in price of this one. Those you would have to setup from scratch, they might not be totally square and flattening a sole might be needed. But you could have good selection of planes or differently setup same plane (medium angle - default, high angle (with back bevel) - for controlling tearout) in the same price. If you don't do woodworking for a living and want work with wood more than with metal more, pick a different plane on the same or higher price point. Veritas would save you time on setup because of it's design with grab screws, but once you are experienced you can set it up in seconds anyway, so there might not be need for paying twice the cost. If you picking your first plane, you might be wondering should you go with normal or low angle plane. Low angle planes are easier to begin with, but you will have huge tearout on some wood types. Plane like this one is slightly better for tear out because of chipbreaker (at least that's the theory that some dispute in practice) and the higher angle. If you pick low angle block plane, you will need a second high angle blade... or another plane, as the cheap ones are cheaper than blades from lie nielsen or vertias.

A proper plane, just like the one I used in school in the 1960s. You need to adjust it for the thickness you want to remove, and set the mouth to the width for the wood you are planing. It’s also a good idea to learn how to sharpen the blade while you are at it. I never listened at school, so I had to teach myself from scratch. It is lovely and heavy, and the ‘swisssh’ of paper thin shavings shooting out as you push it along is really fantastic. Leaves a very smooth surface too. Brilliant!

I'm a weekend handyman and amateur woodworker, so I wasn't sure if I'd notice the difference in quality from a relatively expensive tool like this, but I have to say I was very impressed. The plate of the plane is as flat as flat can be, adjustments you can make are very useful, and there's essentially no play in the fittings, so once it's set up right then it stays that way. And, I have to say, it is a thing of beauty! I have a few woodworking tools inherited from my grandfather that just fit your hand perfectly and also look gorgeous, and when I look at this I know that I'll be passing this down the generations as well.

Sono un hobbista, avevo bisogno di questo strumento. La pialla lavora a meraviglia. Per un neofita come me occorre fare un po' di esperienza per effettuare le regolazioni, a seguire, risultati perfetti. Il marchio Stanley non si smentisce per qualita'. Aggiungo che ho avuto un problema con il primo ordine, l'alberino che regola la profondita' di taglio non funzionava. Ho effettuato il reso, nessun problema, il binomio Amazon Stanley mi ha immediatamente rispedito un prodotto perfettamente funzionante. Perfetto. Il prezzo e' adeguato alla funzionalita' ed anche alla qualita' dei materiali. Pialla straconsigliata

Good quality plane

Un très bon rabot! Il faut en parallèle un petit outil pour affûter le fer et avoir une coupe rasoir. Bien en main. Réglages faciles !! C'est important. On ne passe pas 1/4 d'heure à régler la lame au 1/10 de milimètre comme certains rabot. C'est une belle pièce de l'atelier que cet outil !!

A small visitor to my shop tried to pick up my No4 off the bench. And, it hit the floor and cracked the body. You have to watch toddlers around attractive tools, and I should have put it away earlier. So, I was instantly, and unexpectedly in the market for a new No4. After reading reviews and checking prices this seemed worth a gamble. I haven’t really used it much. I have at this point just turned it and checked it. Out of the box I checked it with a machinist square, and it seems true flat and square. I put a couple of marks on the sole and started with 600-grit black carbide sand paper. All the marks were gone in five passes. So, the sole came flat. The sides were flat and at ninety to the sole checking with the high dollar Starret square that lives in its box in the drawer of precision tools. I can’t get them any better. so, I left them alone. Then I honed the blade starting at 600, and going up-to 2000-grit. Before I put the blade back in, I took a file and relieved the sharp edges of the body just a bit. Then I set it up, and tried a few passes. Good clean shavings. Summary: Pluses, Quality, as good as my Lee Valley Veritas planes. Wish it had the two set screws they have, to keep the front of the blade centered. But I own a drill press and some taps. If it bothers me after I use it for a bit, I can install them. Minuses, there are no available blades. The blade looks pretty close to a Kung blade out of Germany which looks like it might work, and I may decide to get one and see. If it does, I’ll come back and update. Value, when I ordered this plane it was $134, with shipping. At that price it is an outstanding value. But the price is now $238. At that price it is still seems to be a good value.

I have just received the plane and tried it on one board. Love it! Quality wise it is much better built and machined to a higher precision than Bailey #7 that I was disappointed with. Sweetheart #4 has a polished sole which is dead flat, both sides also flat and at perfect 90 degrees to the sole, Norris type adjuster that allows increasing depth by small increments (it has a clever mechanism with screw threads of two different sizes that effectively act as a "gearbox"), thick stable blade of A2 steel, nice wooden knob and tote etc. I was able to take really thin shavings of wood as advertised! Perhaps the only little thing that could be improved is the depth adjuster that does not engage immediately when one starts turning it in opposite direction. For example, if one has sticked its blade out too much and would now like to pull it back a bit, it will take some time before turning the knob actually engages the adjuster. So, one may end up pulling it in too much if it fails to notice when the blade starts actually moving by either feeling increased resistance or watching it. This is only a small inconvenience, I would say. Update Dec 30, 2015: I checked the manual of one of my Veritas planes that I had received in the meantime and learnt that if a user happens to stick the blade out too much he/she should first pull it back in a little bit more than actually needed, and then increase the depth again. Probably, because every screw thread has some play (even if it is only a fraction of a millimeter) and this way the blade will be resting on the right side of the thread, i.e. will not possibly move in while planing. So, from that perspective the design of Stanley Sweetheart depth adjuster is comparable to the one from Veritas. They both have play, the only difference is in the amount of play each one of them has.