On 2011-06-05 19:35:59 -0400, Joe invalid said:

I cannot achieve shavings - only sawdust. I think I must not setting
it up correctly. There's an adjustment / positioning lever behind the
blade that I don't know exactly what to do with. There's a picture
showing it at:
http://www.handplane.com/165/stanley...ell-fore-plane .
The second picture on the right gives the best view.

This is a transistional plane -- the generation between the wooden
plane and the "modern" metal sole plane.

The key feature for this is the adjuster that allows the blade to be
raised and lowered without the use of a hammer of some sort -- one
source referes to this as a "Bailey" adjuster, but it's not the same
mechanism as most of us identify as a Bailey: a brass knob on a
threaded post (see http://tinyurl.com/3w6lrwl -- note the middle plane
shows the later clamp system, but doesn't show the adjuster as shown at
http://www.handplane.com/129/stanley-no-28-fore-plane/).

Here's a better web resource from Patrick's Blood amd Go
http://www.supertool.com/stanleybg/stan12.htm#num135

I have two larger (and marginally later) versions of this plane with
the knob adjuster. With a sharpened blade and a flattened sole, these
do work well. Remember, if you flatten the sole, raise the blade but
leave it under tension and remove as little material as possible.