Ya gotta watch these...
...repops although Harbor Freight may actually be selling a tool that can be used.
I once got in a spirited Email conversation with the "head historian" at Stanley tools. A fine fellow with historical interests at heart, we were discussing a reproduction "Millers Patent" combination plane that the folks at Franklin Mint were offering under Stanley license.
Priced at slightly under a hundred dollars, the repop looked appealing. But the brochure included a caviet "For Display Only" which to me indicates "non-functional." I made an inquiry to Stanley about the wisdom of spending a bunch of money to make and buy "non-functional" when perhaps a third more $ would make "functional" a fact. I even pointed out to him the marketplace demand for upper end user hand tools and the success that Lie-Nielson was having with other former Stanley Products.
Also I noted that Stanley currently did not offer anything along the lines of a plow plane and that a true Stanley Miller functional repop would be certain to be a success again due to lack of current producers. It would be a blast from the past that would make every tool afficionado/historian happy (except those few with original Miller's appreciating on the shelf) And a worthy goal for a Stanley 150th year commemorative in 1997.
The reply I got back from him was sympathetic to my point of view, to say the least. However he did indicate there was market demand for "static display" tools which was a market that Franklin Mint was exploring at their own risk. And that while I was probably right in that a functional Miller Patent plane could be made, he was glad to not be the engineer who would have to make it happen for less than $200 each delivered. He also pointed out the limited market for upper end user tools and that the current used tool marketplace seemed to satisfy demand.
(Sure if you want to spend $500 for a usable Miller Patent plane. Money that would be a week's earnings for an interior joiner - and a pile of junk for
www.backyardcasting.com should it be inadvertantly dropped.)
We concluded our discourse in good humor but neither really seeing the interests of the other except in general terms.
And I note that Franklin Mint hasn't exactly shut out the mantle and coffee table available space yet with their repop miller planes. Also noted that Lie Nielson is still going great guns and widening their functional upper end user planes availability.
Now if Lie Nielson would only make a #2 Stanley/Bailey in cast iron. I'll give the collectors the #1 S/B terrain.
Best,
Joe