My Stanley Defiance Planes

With the completion of the 1203 restoration I’m taking a short break and getting things together for some more projects and saving up for more of my collection so I figured now is a good time to snag a pic of the 3 Defiance planes together.

These three form the rank and file of the Defiance line. The smallest being the 1203 with her little 1 3/4″ iron followed by the 1204 which has the same dimensions overall except the iron is 2″ wide. Bringing up the rear is the 1205 measuring 14″ long with a 2″ iron.

Aside for smoothing the soles and sharpening the irons these three little gems are ready to be put into service and that’s something I need to work on next, getting some proper stones to sharpen them with. I’m also working on a nice plane rack to showcase the Defiance and Eclipse planes which will look really nice once it’s all finished and filled up.

But for now I am very pleased with the way these three turned out and look forward to getting more of this line and finishing out the whole set. I know some people consider them trash as far as collectibles go, but for me they’re the greatest thing since sliced bread as I’ve never really owned “old” tools and it’s a blast learning how to restore and use them. Especially since they’re over 70 years old !!!

I do have the Eclipse 1205 in my possession now as well so look out for an upcoming post on what I do with that… I’m thinking of going dark with it as it already seems to have a blued finish underneath the black paint someone slobbed all over it.