On 16 Jan, 14:00, Phisherman wrote:
If the Stanley #55 plane was such a good universal workhorse, why are
they not sold today? *Or, are similar planes made today?

They are, just not by Stanley. There are any number around cheap S/H,
Record made them until recently and Clifton are now making them
(although at some incredible price).

The trouble is, that like other metal bodied interchangeable iron
planes, the mouth is poor - there isn't one! So chip formation is
poor, compared to an old one-pattern wooden moulder. They also
appeared on the market at a time when previous fashions for extensive
moulding work were receding, and routers (fixed bench machines at
least) were appearing for production joinery.

I've got a couple: #55 and a Record 050 and I never use them. About
the only thing I might use them for would be to match custom mouldings
(making a cutter to match) and I do that with a Stanley #66 scratch
stock instead (cuts very slowly, but leaves a better finish).