The WORST Handplane Innovation.
It's cruel but true. The “two piece” cap iron is in my opinion an evolutionary dead end, a stinker, something that just doesn't help a handplane do it's job. It's origins are with Record tools. It's fair to say that Record's range of bench planes were nothing more than clones of Stanley's range. So much so, you can often mix a match parts from Stanley and Record planes. The only thing of note Record did was add their own numbering system. They simply added a “0” to Stanley's numbers. You want a No.4? You bought a No.04, you get the idea.
This is not a dig at Record. Leonard Bailey invented the wheel and Stanley took his work and refined it over decades until it became the perfect bench plane for 90% of woodworkers, 90% of the time. Stanley's patent had long expired, what we're Record to do? Make a square wheel? No! They left that to bevel up bench planes, single irons and Norris adjusters of modern makers…
So they needed something else. In the early 1930’s they released a two piece cap iron in a plane and branded it “Stay-Set”. This was denoted by an “SS” on the lever cap. So let's try and unpick what the imagined benefits were.
Staying set. When we sharpen our planes, we remove or slide the cap iron back. This is so we can work the face of the iron after raising the burr. With the Stay-Set design the front section separates without the need to unscrew anything. It all sounds very Formula 1 pitstop. The front section then simply presses back in any you haven't lost your cap iron setting. It stayed set! The reality is it’s horrible trying to remove the burr as the cap iron that's left on gets in the way. Also, it takes just moments to set a normal cap iron. In my experience, zero benefit to be found here.
No “chatter”. I don't know if this was a money back guarantee deal or hype, I'm inclined to think the latter. “Chatter” in a plane is often a bit of a straw man. If you have a bog standard Bailey pattern plane and the results are poor, it's almost always going to be operator error. Blunt, too deep of a cut, working against the grain, excessive force all create defects and it falls upon you to be better at your job. A two piece cap iron won't allow you to steamroller through those issues, nor will any plane for that matter. Practice, that's what's needed. In my estimation the design actually makes things worse. The benefit of a normal cap iron is that it does create a little bit of a bend to the iron that creates a firm contact patch at the top an bottom of the frog. You can see this on the wear of any plane you use, that is unless you don't really use your tools all that much.
And that's about it. Anothet downside to me is that the front section can get lost easily. Also, people might be tempted to pay more for this design thinking it's a magic solution. Sure, if you're curious, go ahead and try it. I'm not the world's authority on woodworking.
The design did have a last hurrah with Clifton, but thankfully they dropped it and now use a one piece design. The one you see here will be making its way to eBay soon to satisfy someone else's curiosity or complete a collection.