Great video! Thank you for explaining the details of WHY the Handyman is so inferior. I picked one up (fortunately cheap) before finding out they were to be avoided. I thought maybe if I spent enough time tuning it up it would still be ok, but now I know I should go ahead and seek out a much better one right away. I think I'll still tune it up, just to learn/practice doing that. Thanks again!

Thanks for a timely video. I'm currently looking for some good planes to indulge a long-standing fascination with hand woodworking in general and a slight fetish for joinery in particular. I'd heard the pre-WW II Stanleys were the ones to have, while the "Handyman" series were best avoided. This makes clear the reasons why that might be so.

Thank you very much. Lots of information!

Hate to say it but not really, I have a Stanley Handyman and a Stanley Bailey type 5. Use them every day. Have not seen any differance between the two. I did get both for free, both from grandfathers. The type 5 is ww2 vintage. All I want from a tool is that it does the job I want.

P.S. Excellent job with your 2 camera system, using one for the close-ups. Lots of more established woodworking KZfaqrs could learn from this!

Thanks for the comprehensive and honest comparison.

I have the Handyman I inherited from my Godfather (RIP). I knew it was a anquie but I don't it was the cheaper model. I don't ever remember him buying new tools. Thanks for the info.

I just got a number 5 from my grandfather and its got a corrigated sole which I hadn't seen before but it works awesome

Have been using a handyman for about a year and am restoring a type 16 now this video just confirmed my suspensions about witch is better

Enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up

Timely, as I will probably receive an old(ish) Stanley of as yet unknown type; very useful info!

thank you for the info

I have 2 #3 planes. The Bailey is pre WWII w/o the kidney lever cap. Its parts are smoother and easier to use. But I get finer shavings from the handyman and get a fine finish from it. I probably need to fettle the Bailey more. I set the handyman and don't change it. If I need to change settings, I use the Bailey because it's easier. You can get any plane to work well. A good blade will keep its edge so you don't need to sharpen it all the time. A quality plane will feel better. I enjoy the quality in my Veritas plow plane but I can still cut a rabbet with my homemade rabbet plane from a chisel.

Man, I've been using a Handyman for everything as it replaced the later model Craftsman I had before, and I thought that was a night & day experience. Now you have me looking for actual #4 planes.

Still won't throw away my grand dad's handyman

Found this video after i bought 2 stanley #4 planes one is a handyman and the other im not sure of. I cant complain tho since the were both sub 1€ and the handyman is possably used by my late grandpa when he was teaching woodworking. Since the school name was etched in the toad

What about turning a handyman into a scrub plane??

I think there might have been a progressive decline in the quality of the Handyman series. I bought one for $5 that was pretty clean, and after I finished tuning it up it worked ok. I find that I don't often change the frog position, but then again I have a variety of planes set up as I like them - both sizes and brands. Many of the non-Stanley planes are pretty good too, including MIllers Falls and Sargent Hercules. One plane that I'm looking for is a Vaughan & Bushnell 904 plane with a forged body.

Great video. So how do we recognize the difference with just some pictures on ebay or any other website ? Or even we see one, how to see if it's a handyman without getting it in pieces ?

I do have to agree I own every size Stanley ever made including the bedrock line and I also own a few old handyman not all handyman's were created equal nor were they all made the same you can take some handyman models and turn them into fairly decent plane by filing and flattening the soul of the flog it's not that big a deal now the body on the other hand it's more difficult I bought a 3/8 in mill put in my drill press to do the pedestals of the body where the frog sits and I've also had to do this to high end planes well there was just no way to correct the side to side lateral and if you just don't want to do anything to them they do make pretty good scrub planes anyhow enough of my Bs you all have a nice day

KP can you give some examples of the other Stanley planes you refer to. I’ve never encountered the same later adjustment lever problem with other Stanley planes, certainly not the pre WW2’s that I have with the Handyman’s. Another comment is the milling on the bottom of the frog and the Handyman plane base is often such that they never seat squarely. If you can’t get the blade to run parallel with the leading edge of the slot on the base, the plane will never perform optimally. This I have encountered on a variety of Stanley planes from time to time and it is virtually impossible to fix unless you are a machinist. Even so, the results with re-milling that I have seen have been poor.

Sadly, the Handyman is still better than the cheap Chinese made ones these days

Nooo I just ordered a 45 dollar handyman from eBay thinking I got a great deal. Bummer 😐

Andy 'the plane guy' I've taught hundreds of people how to sharpen and tune old Stanley planes and have refurbished thousands of them. Frequently, on the Handyman planes, the tab on the lateral adjustment leaver, which sits in the slot on the plane iron, has snapped off rendering the lateral adjustment leaver useless. l call this the Handyman 'ripoff' as most neophytes don't know to look for it and end up buying a poor quality plane that is not fully functional. If the objective is to do woodwork, as opposed to planing the odd door, the Handyman should be avoided. They can be converted into reasonable scrub planes.