Hi Michael
I can’t say I’ve much experience with Record planes; the only one of theirs I have is a small block plane that seldom gets used these days. I’ve found that, like the Stanleys in my collection, their build quality is sadly lacking, but, if you put a ton of effort into tuning them, you can get them working reasonably well.
Re Stanleys....
Straight outa the box, they’re useless…. The backs of the blades are a country mile from flat, the bevels have been sharpened on fairly rough stones, the soles of the planes are all over the place, like the blades, far from flat. That’s the bad side.
On the good side, thanks to the poor quality of the steel you’re dealing with, correcting this mess doesn’t take too long.
To flatten the soles, I pinched some ideas I read from the “scary sharp” method; sliced open some sanding belts and glued them to an off-cut of kitchen worktop I had. Just used 4 grits; 40, 60, 80 and 120. I did the bulk of the flattening on the 40 grit, vacuuming the paper after every 10 strokes or so; the remaining grits got to work on the remaining scratches. For flattening, I left the planes fully assembled, but retracted the blades clear of the sole. Apparently removing the frog first isn’t recommended.
As for the blades, a couple of minutes on some good water stones keeps them fighting fit. I’ve found that the only GOOD side of blades made from soft thin steel is that their need for repeated honing gets you up to speed with sharpening REAL quick. Trying to learn on some Lie Nielson blades could take a lifetime.
While you’re at it, give the leading edge of the chip breaker a tickle on a course stone too to help prevent chips slipping between it and the blade.
I’ve 4 Stanley planes; the block plane is used as often as the Record, the #4 is a 40 year old model I inherited when dad died that really needs restoring, both the #5 and #7 work damn hard for their living. Both work reasonably well too, although you really have to wring their necks to get the most out of them. Their down side is that they don’t work at all well with highly figured stock. Their blades simply aren’t strong enough; blade chatter and tear out reign supreme, hence my expanding collection of Lie Nielsen’s.
