Stanley No. 9-3/4 Tail-Block Plane - Type 4
The No. 9-3/4 was essentially Stanley's No. 9-1/2 adjustable-mouth block plane with the addition of the removable rear handle, and early examples are considerably scarcer than their tailless relatives.
About the tail. At some point Stanley looked at a perfectly respectable little block plane and apparently thought,You know what this needs? More plane.So they bolted an iron appendage onto its backside, stuck a rosewood ball on the end, and sent it out into the world with a tail. Not a tote. That would be normal. A tail.
The tail did have a legitimate purpose, though: it gave the user a rear grip on a plane normally operated in the palm, and it can be removed if you prefer your block planes to observe conventional anatomical boundaries.
But why would you?
This is also an exceptionally nice early example—complete, original, undamaged, with fully 95% of its original black japanning remaining and the proper early L. Bailey's Patent cutter. So while we have spent most of this description questioning the wisdom of giving a block plane a tail, we should probably mention that this is a genuinely scarce, approximately 150-year-old Stanley in remarkable condition.
Ships to you carefully packed and insured just in case.
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