' the devil is Stanley Sweetheart??

“Sweetheart” is a logo used in the past and reintroduced recently by Stanley. A heart shape with the letters “SW” inside. The “SW” stands for The Stanley Works; the heart-shape is a memorial to The Stanley Works long-time president, William Hart.

.

-- "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." - Mark Twain

Thanks Richard, I learned something today already!

-- No, I don't want to buy the pink hammer.

I also didnt know that. Nice knowledge drop Richard.

-- "there aren’t many hand tools as awe-inspiring as the #8 jointer. I mean, it just reeks of cast iron heft and hubris" - Smitty

cool. Thanks for filling us all in, Richard.

Ben

-- Ben, England.

Richard is correct and the Sweetheart tools seem to be thought of more highly, especially planes and chisels. I’ve had several people tell me that the SW plane irons hold an edge better. Why? I don’t know. I can tell you that Sweetheart tools bring higher prices.

-- Dave, Colonie, NY

I am not sure when Stanley started using chrome vanadium
steel, but I do not think he sweetheart irons are made
of this steel. While chrome vanadium resists corrosion
and is easy to sharpen (which appeals to the occasional
and non-professional users), it doesn’t hold an edge the
way high carbon steel does.

If you find a Sweetheart era plane (they made them
for a couple of decades I think) you’ve found
a plane in the “sweet spot” of Stanley history
when the bugs had been worked out of the
designs and quality was as good as Stanley ever
had. After the Sweetheart era Stanley eventually
started cutting corners and most of the cooler
specialized planes were phased out for good.

Loren, so if I wanted to buy the current low angle jack that they’re branding as sweetheart, would I expect that sweet spot plane lovin or will be be a modern cut corner plane pretending to be better than it is??

Thanks

Benvolio

-- Ben, England.

All sweethearts are terrible, don’t buy any of them….especially the vintage ones

Sorry my sarcasm doesn’t translate well. I love this era of Stanley tools, quality stuff.

As far as that new low angle jack 62, it’s gotten some pretty good reviews, but not nearly as cool as a vintage one…in my opinion.

-- Lucas, "Someday woodworks will be my real job, until then, there's this http://www.melbrownfarmsupply.com"

Oh – the new “sweetheart” stuff is probably pretty good. If
the irons are chrome vanadium steel they won’t be so great
but you can get carbon steel ones from other manufacturers.

The point I was trying to make is that if you’re looking at
a row of vintage bench planes and they are all the same
price, the sweethearts in there will probably be good
choices. They’re kind of fun to collect I guess… they are
pretty common so you’ll run across them often.

The original sweetheart logo in no way indicated it was
a premium plane. All the Stanley planes of that era
had the logo on the irons.

The sweetheart logo is actually in honor of a long time Stanley president William Hart.

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)