I am a 76 year old using a number 4 Stanley my dad bought for me when I was in my early twenties. After seeing this I may well feel compelled to give it the Parker treatment it fully deserves one of these days!  I am enjoying these videos and learning all sorts from them.  Thank you.

Loving the channel! Really well produced and well delivered videos and you obviously really know your stuff -looking forward to future uploads!

Very pleased I found your channel.  I restored my first plane last summer and I've completed about six more older Stanley and Millers Falls since.  Most of them perform very well now and all of them are better than I found them.  Some were in rough shape. Soles took a lot of work to flatten.

Very good restoration video for a plane that is intended to be used.  Look forward to the sharpening video.  Thank you for sharing.

Love the meticulous approach to getting the planes dialed in. I definitely need to go back and check each of the job critical planes and get them squared away. It too easy to just keep working them and accept potentially a subpar result. It also helps to go back thru the first video and make sure each of these tools are top notch and ready for things to come.

Inspiring.

Hi Ian, I`m enjoying your series of videos, I`ve read through the comments here, you say you never flatten a plane under tension not even your shoulder planes, my Veritas shoulder planes improved massively after carefully flattening them under tension, the amount of deflection on the sole just back from the mouth is quite considerable.
By the way, I believe Lie Nielsen use only A2 steel for their blades, the Isles ones are very good and British made, which is nice.

I did watch some one who took apart a Lie Neilson plane once to "fine tune" it. He did knock the pins out of the frog so he could sand/mill the entire surface. I did that once. I think it helped a little bit, but probably not enough to make that step necessary. Worst one was an old plane where the seat that the frog sat on was humped. Took a while to figure out how to "fix" that....

Excellent video Ian.  Shout out to Classic Hand Tools mentioning your channel in their current newsletter!
I’m in the process of tuning up my “free” #5.  I need to go back to address additional details.  They include frog leveling/contact at 9:55 and mouth filing at 26:00.  Do you  worry about dressing up the sides or Is it cosmetic only?  I see you use wax to lubricate.  Is it a specific type or brand?

This is absolutely fabulous teaching and information to anyone who wants to up their game in woodworking!
I really really hope your channel takes off because it's absolutely top notch imho.
I have been using a hand plane for decades and no one has ever shown me how to do what you have taught so clearly in this video. I watched a video saying you should have a slight curve on the cutting edge of your plane but this has never ever made sense to me because a curved plane will create gouges rather than flatten the surface.
Can I ask, was that just 2 layers of plywood for your strop? Did you have anything on top of the ply or was it just polishing compound directly on the wood?

"I have a high-quality milling machine, in which I clamp the plane and thus mill the sole to be absolutely dimensionally accurate."

Really enjoyed this. I inherited a number of my dads planes and have spent an inordinate amount of time restoring them, with i have to say mixed results. Having watched this im wondering if its with upgrading to a Clifton or similar, or continue to try and improve the old ones as much as i can. I would never part with them as my dad used them all his life and there is that connection but performance wise, im not so sure re effort vs return.

Hello Ian, another great video!
After seeing you prepping stock and working with that wonderful Clifton no. 5 1/2, I seriously thought of upgrading my Stanley no. 5 to something mid-way, I'm not ready nor serious enough to fork out 500 quid just yet 😀
But thanks to providence, I watched this video today (well, started watching that is) and I will definitely try to work on the sole of my Stanley first!
About your flattening setup: is that wet 'n dry paper coming with self adhesive? I am asking because I have double-sided tape, but I'm not sure whether that would somehow introduce uneven spots in the otherwise very flat setup.
The second question is whether you get to the "mirror finish" you show on both soles, through 400 grit alone, or do you switch to higher grits?
Also, although not shown (so far?), I think you sanded the cheeks too? They looked pretty shiny :)
... And another one: how did you reach to the contact points to the frog, on the sole, to improve/enlarge the contact surface? File I suppose?
EDIT : oh, I heard just now when illustrating the work on the frog that you switched to 1000 grit, so that's probably where the shining is coming from 🙂

Does it make a difference that the flattening progress is happening while the sole is not under any tension?

Have you tackled squaring the sides to the sole.

I've heard that any treatment of the sole,  should be done whilst the plane parts are all assembled?.   Thoughts?

Did you polishes sides of your plane?

Just weeks ago, after gifting myself a Lie Nielsen plane for a big birthday, I had declared my plane collection to be complete, but after watching this video, I found myself overpaying for a wonderfully manky Stanley No. 5 from the early 40s, and I’ll pick up a replacement blade for it, too. Looking forward to seeing what I can get out of it.

I’m already very happy with the results I get from the vintage planes, but I’ve previously bought them in restored condition, and seeing your process has encouraged me to take on a restoration myself and have a closer look at the ones I already have. I think I’ll enjoy it.

One thing I’ve picked up from other videos: people use a little bit of lapping compound on the frog and the contact points in the body, carefully rubbing it in, so to speak. Looks like a promising technique to me.

If you're not a masochist, start lapping the bottom on 120 or 80 grit. You don't need to go hogher than 150. You do not need a mirror finish on the bottom of your plane!

My arms hurt. Flattening the sole of a plane is a diabolical curve: at first you think it’s going to be quite easy, but as you go on, the hollow spots seem to disappear at a slower and slower rate, as your sandpaper wears down. At some point I decided to make this an Easter project rather than trying to get it done in one go: luckily I have a spot in which I can just leave the whole setup and return to it whenever I like. But I’ve reached a point of flatness now, or rather a plane of flatness: the rest is more lapping than grinding, and that has given me a real sense of accomplishment. I suppose my point is to stick with it: it works, and it’s worth the effort and the tedium.

Some people take drastic measures and attack their soles with 40 grit sandpaper, and I can’t blame them. I went down to 100 grit, and I’m currently back to 400, taking out the scratches. I have ambitions for this No. 5, and I will take it to 800 or 1000 as per Ian’s instructions, but I had to be a little more brutal to get somewhere, even though the sole was in a decent state to begin with: it looks like it has been used heavily, but not abused. Maybe it’s just the Dunning-Kruger kicking in, the effect that makes you think you can help others despite not having gained much experience at all, but I’d say it’s fine to take 80 year old cast iron to a fairly low grit first.