Jointer

But this is the sort of tool I have now. And love. Look at the size of this benchplane, the #8



The biggest plane Stanley made. You do that to make an board edge absolutely flat. Or as flat as wood can be. What he is doing is flattening the sole of the thing. The flatter the better. Though the old stuff came from the factory pretty flat. Stuff made 30 years ago? Well, lets say to cut costs the quality went down. On some stuff you can SEE that the cast iron is warped a bit.

In my opinion, the plane you get from the 'Sweetheart' era of Stanley tools were the best. That was between the wars. The makers knew what they were doing, and all the features that were going to be invented were invented. If you can see 2 or three patent dates in front of the rear grip on the cast iron, that plane is a Sweetheart (Name after William H. Hart)