It turns out that of Bailey’s adjustable “Victor” planes, both the No.12 “Pocket” block plane and the “Little Victor” both had “handy” style finger depressions. The pictures below come from a 1879 Stanley catalog – 18 years before Traut’s 1897 design patent. Note the large size of the depression on the two planes in comparison to their size? On the pocket block plane, at 4½”, the handy is 1.4″ in length. The Little Victor also had a handy 1.4″ in length, but was only 3½” in total length.
working by hand 