George Geyer Thank you!

I agree wholeheartedly.

Unfortunately I’m not going to be much help. First, I don’t have a screw thread gauge to measure the thread count. Second, Stanley used odd thread pitches and chances are the normal screws found at the hardware store will likely not fit. You basically have two choices. Find old Stanley screws from another plane or someone parting out a plane on eBay, and or drill out the existing threads and retap the holes with a modern size.

@@BobRozaieskiFineWoodworking Thank you for taking the time to respond. I am going to take the tool to a local watchmaker to see if he can identify the thread size and count. We have a local machinist company that fine tunes guns, and I will try them as well. As a last resort I will drill it out and retap it. It is a user, but when my heirs pass it on, I'd like it to be as close to original as possible. Again, Thanks, Don Smith, Morganton, NC

With a gunsmith's thread gauge, I found that a 5 x 40 x 1/4" (used by gunsmith's for sights, etc. is perfect for the spurs on the Stanley 39. I tried it on 3 different sizes of the Stanley 39. Those screws can be found online with a little searching.

Thanks! I have not tried a #46 and I likely won’t, unless someone loans me one to try.

Bob, if you find yourself in northern Virginia you’re welcome to try out my 46. Also, forgot to mention that your tip for removing the depth stop screw on the metal dado plane is priceless. I had to figure this out on my own several years ago and I won’t admit how long it took me!

Thanks for the offer! I have a Record 050 (same basic principle without the skewed blade). I’ve been thinking about doing a series on that plane with all the different things it’s capable of. I haven’t tried to make a dado with it due to the square blade, and because I have dado planes. But maybe I’ll try it just for the purpose of comparison.

@@BobRozaieskiFineWoodworking I'd be interested in that. I have a stanly 50 that I would use for dados if I needed to.

Your best bet is going to be ebay. There are a couple of sellers there that often sell parts for these and other planes.

Thanks Bob. I did check on eBay but unfortunately, the ones are from USA and just would not make economic sense. I would hope there is an alternative solution. Reproduction version perhaps?

@@TheHerbsterooney Unfortunately I’m not aware of anyone making new/reproduction blades for these.

For the most part, yes. They can make dados wider than the plane by making adjacent dados. So essentially make a dado, move the batten, make another dado right next to the first one, etc. But this isn’t a common technique.

Two completely different planes for two completely different joints. The no. 39 is for making dados (grooves across the grain, housed on both sides). The no. 78 is for rabbets (housed on only one side). While you could use a no. 39 to make a small rabbet, you really can’t use a no. 78 to make a dado. The no. 78 only has one nicker and has a blade that is 1 ½” wide. I suppose if you wanted a 1 ½” wide dado you could use the 78 by scribing the walls with a knife, but I think It would be more trouble than it’s worth.

@@BobRozaieskiFineWoodworking Thanks so much for explaining that to me

Any time 👍🏻

@@BobRozaieskiFineWoodworking I was wondering the same question ?