Roger wrote:

>In case that's not very helpful, Abe, I think you need to educate yourself
>about tools in general.  Maybe you need to find some craftsman locally,
>somebody that makes or made a living using hand tools, and ask him to show
>you
>some differences and why the differences are important.
(snip)
>In my personal opinion, you need some other way to gain knowledge about tools
>that asking the porch about particular tool models, even tho there may be
>many
>willing to share their opinions.

This would be a good thing to do if one could actually find someone local
who knows hand tools. Another Galoot or a visit to a regional MWTCA meet
(see the MWTCA web site or the Electronic Neanderthal site for events)
are also possibilities. Meanwhile the Porch exists as a place to get
answers to such questions. Meanwhile, there are those of us who are quite
happy to give advice. :-)

As John Solie also mentions in another reply, Corsairs were marketed by
Great Neck and were generally in the Stanley Handyman class of plane.
There are many other makes which would be better choices. Dunlaps were
also 'handyman' planes.

Planes to look out for are Sargents, Stanley Baileys, Millers Falls
planes with the jointed lever cap, and older Records. Mainly you want a
plane with a cast frog (not stamped sheet metal) and well machined
surfaces. Both the upper and bottom surfaces of the frog  as well as the
frog receiver on the bed of the plane should be machined. The frog should
be held on with two screws. The better planes had frog adjusting screws.
Patrick's Blood and Gore at

http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan0.htm

is the best source for descriptions of the various types of Stanley
planes. Patrick's observations are oriented towards the user. Randy
Roeder's web site has good illustrations of Millers Falls planes at:

http://www.public.coe.edu/~rroeder/mf.htm

Once you get a couple of decent planes, take them apart, clean them and
fond.. er, whatever, you will be able to spot a quality plane across
several flea market tables. It's worth it to wait for a Stanley, Sargent,
M-F, etc. since they often won't cost much more than the also-rans.
****************************
Tom Price (TomPrice@a...)
Will Work For Tools
A Field Guide To Millers Falls Type 1 Planes is featured at The Galoot's
Progress:
http://members.aol.com/tomprice/galootp/galtprog.html