found it.......
#S4 Steel smooth plane, 9"L, 2"W, 3lbs. 1926-1942.
Offered as indestructable planes (maybe Stanley foresaw the nuclear arms race?), Stanley made these planes for heavy duty abuse. They advertised them as being useful for shops that had concrete floors. If I were in Stanley's marketing department, back when the planes were offered, I would have added that the planes were also designed for those workdudes prone to losing their temper, where the planes can withstand their being slammed to the ground during a fit of rage, like after you smash your thumb with a hammer or something like that.
These planes beg abuse, and have a pressed or forged steel bottom. The steel is bent to form a U-shape. A piece forward of the mouth and rear of the mouth are riveted to the steel bottom. The lever cap and frog are made of malleable iron (the normal bench planes have their bottom casting made of gray iron), with the frog's casting having a noticeably coarser texture than those provided on the Bailey line.
The frog design is unique to this plane, and is not interchangable with other bench planes. The upper portion of the frog has concave sides, and resembles a glass long-neck beer bottle. The frog is adjustable with the same patent arrangement that was provided on the Bailey bench planes. I have seen some examples that have a spacer piece placed behind the fork that engages the frog adjusting screw.
They resemble the look of the BED ROCK series of planes, with their semi-squared off sides (actually, they are slightly concave), instead of the rounded sides found on the Bailey line. Their knob and tote are rosewood - a species that's certainly capable of withstanding the plane smashing on concrete? Speaking of the knob and tote, the totes used on these planes have a large hole bored in their bottoms so that they can engage the boss in which the tote screw fits. Thus, a normal #4 tote cannot fit on this plane without first enlarging the hole.
The knobs are always the high knob variety, but the earlier models did not have the raised ring into which the knob fits. After the idea of a raised ring was hatched, this plane had that feature applied to it to help it be even more indestructible than before.
The planes are finished nicely, and look rather striking when in mint condition (finding them anywhere near mint condition is difficult since most of the examples got transformed into dogs from all the rough use). The lever caps are nickel plated and look similarly to those used on the Bailey series. However, the lever caps are supposedly made of malleable iron and have a different pattern of recesses on their backsides than the normal lever caps. The frog and inside area of the bottom section are finished with a flat black japanning, which gives them the appearance of having been repainted. The plane is stamped "No. S4" into the top of the main portion (can't say main casting here since these planes aren't cast), right at the toe, before the knob.
shall i get one??? would u?
