# Stanley Sweetheart Low Angle Block Plane



## swirt

Nice review David. And thanks for the comparison photo. That is most helpful.


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## lanwater

I got one last year and have been using it from time to time. 
I also did not have to sharpen the blade. It still shaves well.

Out of curiousity, why did you decide to change the blade for an LV?


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## davidmicraig

I didn't change the blade on this plane but on the cheaper 9 1/2 plane I bought earlier. I just wanted to demonstrate that the stock blade that comes with the Stanley is as good a quality as the 3rd party Lee Valley blade.

Thanks for the comments.

David


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## helluvawreck

Thanks for the info. I still like the older ones but hopefully Stanley is trying to do what it can to make them like they use to.


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## Dennisgrosen

thank´s for the rewiew David

Dennis


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## Beginningwoodworker

Thanks for the review, David.


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## Rick_Boyett

I gave a fairly harsh review of the 9 1/2 due to the quality control issues that Stanley had with machining the iron. It left a fairly severe skew on the blade…

But at $75, I'm willing to give them another shot…

BTW, here's that deal on Amazon-


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## jbertelson

Thanks for the review David, perhaps this is a sign they will enhance the whole lineup.

Jim


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## rwyoung

I also picked up one of hte 60-1/2 SW block planes. Stanley seems to have dealt with most if not all of the quality complaints. My casting is very clean, the bed well machined and checking the sole it is flat toe to heal and side to side.

The 60-1/2 is quite large for a block plane and if you have small hands you might have issues with the width.

The A2 blade was sharp as it came from the box but a bit too much oil on things for my liking. So since I had it out to clean off the oil I stropped the blade.

Cuts like a champ. I was able to take 0.001" shavings (according to the Folwler calipers) and occasionally it was below 0.001". Caliper's have not been calibrated since I bought them so take the sub-thousand reading with a (small) grain of salt. FYI, I was using white oak and cherry as my test boards. Both cut equally well, I was able to get glassy smooth surfaces.

The lateral adjuster is a little hinky, even with the set-screw on the side snugged up it seemed like it still wanted to slip on a heavier cut. Granted, you don't often take heavy cuts with a block plane. Could be that there is too much oil down inside the mechanism or I was being too prissy with the set-screw. The reason for switching to a heavier cut was to see how well it performed for jobs like chamfering. Other than noticing that I could shift the blade a smidge it slid right through the grain both with and across for chamfering jobs. Given the size and heft of the 60-1/2 it would make a nice plane for a small shooting board.

The depth adjustment has quite a lot of backlash. Again, this isn't necessarily a bad thing but it can be a bit annoying when trying to get down to that last whisper of thickness. My particular adjuster has about 1 and 3/4 turns of lash. This seems high, but not so high as an old #7 I have that has over 2 full turns of backlash. 

So, well worth the $75 (Amazon deal was still running when I purchased).


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