With a wood plane collection like mine, I’m always on the hunt for whatever information I can find about the planes. These days, a trawl through the internet is often likely to turn up some information- and my background in data analysis and consulting help in knowing what to look for and how to look for it on the internet. But my starting point is more likely to be one of the 5 sources listed below.
For anything British – especially the wooden planes – I rely on ‘Goodman’s British Planemakers’.
For years I only had the 2nd Edition, which was good but didn’t have some of the makers I was after. Several years ago the 4th Edition was released and this is my go to reference.
I have been using Trevor Semmens ‘Australian Woodworking Planemakers’ for years and have seen new editions come out with more and more information.
When it comes to Stanley planes – there is Hans Brunner’s ‘Stanley Planes: A Guide to Identification and Value’ (which can be viewed online, starting from here), but my principal resource is Patrick Leach’s website The Superior Works: Patrick’s Blood and Gore which over many pages takes you through information on every Stanley plane. I found it so useful, I went to the trouble of printing all the pages.
For more general information about the usage of various types of planes – I have Garrett Hack’s ‘The Handplane Book’
I also have Emil & Martyl Pollak’s ‘A Guide to the Makers of American Wooden Planes’ 4th Edition but have not found it all that useful because I have very few American sourced wooden planes.