Willow Wood Shop: Sold: Bedrock 606, type 6, fresh restore

SOLD: Stanley Bedrock 606

Type 6 (1910-1921)

$180

Up for sale is a Stanley Bedrock 606, type 6 (1912-1921), 2 patent dates and small depth knob. Ground up refurb and tuneup, it's ready to go to work out of the box. This is a restore done by a hand tool woodworker for hand tool woodworkers.

So what is a Bedrock plane versus a Bailey one? I’m glad you asked...Introduced in the early 20th century Stanley decided that they needed a new, higher end, line of planes where they could introduce newer more “high end features”. The majority of innovation of bench planes at Stanley was occurring around the Bedrock series. One of the first additions was from a patent that introduced the world to that middle frog adjustment screw, the one just below the iron depth adjustment knob on Bailey planes. While offered in the Bedrock series it was then added to all of the Bailey planes as well and survives to this day on modern Stanley and other makers planes.

The other, perhaps more controversial, addition introduced in 1911 (on the type 5) was from another patent which would allow the frog to be loosened up without removing the lever cap and iron. On a Bailey plane, you need to remove those pieces so you can access the screws that hold the frog in place. On a Bedrock you simply loosen 2 screws on the rear of the frog, right beside the other new frog adjustment screw, and move the frog back and forth without removing the lever cap and iron. These are my favorite Bedrock planes and represent the majority of the ones I restore and sell and are widely considered the finest planes ever made by humankind.

Fast forward to modern times… When Thomas Lie-Nielsen was designing his new bench planes, he didn’t have to look any further than the Bedrock series for inspiration. They were, and still are, considered the last great plane to come from the Stanley company. LN took modern steels, tooling and other materials and turned what was a great plane into the world’s finest. By purchasing this Bedrock you are getting a piece of woodworking history.

The nitty gritty details

The base was blasted and received replacement Japanning. The japanning is my recipe and is a near carbon copy replacement for Stanley’s circa 1900-1930. It was applied in several coats then baked at progressively higher temps, an hour at a time. After this it's allowed to cure for 30 days. This finish will last longer than engine enamel and looks nearly identical to a plane coming out of the Stanley factory. The only apology on the base is very slight pitting towards the heel, I do not remove that because it would cause the base to be too thin. It will not affect performance

The frog was torn apart, blasted and received the same japanning as the base. After curing all mating surfaces were flattened. The only apology is pitting on the lateral adjustment lever, it will not affect performance, it's just annoying.

The knob and tote are new and are hand made out of cocobolo by me. To allow the natural beauty of the material to show through they received 2 coats of teak oil (so they're UV protected), were buffed out then had a coat of Renaissance Wax applied. If ren wax is good enough for the British Museum, it's ok in my books. I've added one of Bill Rittner's beautiful brass tote screws, it's a Bedrock and deserves a little bling.

The lever cap is the type correct one that has the word "BEDROCK" cast into it, NOT the word "Stanley" as that is incorrect for a type 6 plane.

It will come with a type correct iron that has been flattened and sharpened to 8000. Some pitting on the top of the iron and lever cap but none in the area that matters. The cap iron was tuned and mated to fit the iron correctly.

It's taking shavings that range from thin .002 to thicker .010.

This is one fine plane, it's beautiful and works very well. For all intents and purposes, this is a almost brand new 100 year old plane that, if taken care of properly, will last at least another 100 years.

Contact me if you're interested.

Some additional pics