I have a plane in my collection that certainly moves away from the more standard Stanley #4 design standard. It is a Craftsman 3740BL disposable blade bench plane.
In actual fact, it is a rebranded Sargent No.600 Aluminium Smooth Plane that the Sargant company made for Sears, Roebuck & Co. under their “CRAFTSMAN” brand. It was only available from 1953-60.
As mentioned – the body of the plane is cast aluminium.
The blade is 4-sided, so can be moved around as each side looses it’s sharpness.
There is a depth adjustment screw so a small amount of sharpening could occur before the blade was disposed of. But if adjacent sides were sharpened, the blade would also become narrower.
This information for the Sargent No. 600 is identical and gives an idea of how it all goes together.
