While browsing ebay a couple weeks back, I came upon this early-1900’s Stanley No. 4 hand plane with a starting bid of $40. Pretty heavy rust and a broken tote, but otherwise it looked solid. I put it on my watch list, curious to see what it would ultimately go for. On the last day of the auction, there were still no bidders. About five minutes before the auction was due to end, I logged back on and still no bidders. I thought “What the hell”, and put in a $40 bid, fully expecting to be outbid at the last second. I was the only bidder — I think the broken tote may have scared off some potential buyers. Shipping added about $10. Usual ebay prices for this particular plane (with shipping) run $75 or more. A similar brand new plane on Amazon goes for anywhere from $40 to $200, and most of them are adequate enough. Some of the pricier ones are even decent. But I prefer these older American-made tools, especially when the price is right.
A couple days later, painted and ready for reassembly. Check out the super heavy pitting on the blade and chip breaker.
I’m not going to go deep into the process of cleaning and prepping. The usual hard labor. I took it apart, degreased everything, stripped the paint, de-rusted, sanded the everloving shit out of it, and repainted. Several beers were consumed to keep everything proceeding smoothly.
Instead of repainting in the original black, I used a deep brown. I was out of black and didn’t feel like making the twenty mile round trip to town to get more..
The blade and chip breaker are deeply pitted in the areas that were exposed, but the working edges were in reasonable shape. The pits are too deep to grind away, so they stay as-is. Adds character.
The repaired tote. Some wood glue and an overnight clamp — Easy fix.
A close-up of the blade top. It’s barely legible through the rust pits but it reads: “Stanley Rule and Level Co., New Britain, Conn., USA”.
Here, I’m sharpening the blade. First, I made sure the non-beveled side was flat all the way across for the first half inch or so back from the cutting edge. The back side has to be flat to give a good even edge. That took maybe 15-20 minutes of sanding with progressively finer grits until it was good to go. I used a Sharpie marker on the blade to gauge where more material needed to be removed. When all the Sharpie marks are gone, it’s flat enough.
This honing guide maintains the correct bevel angle, and I go from 80 to 320 grit sandpaper.
You want a flat surface for blade sharpening. I use a stop sign. I need something better, like a scrap piece of granite countertop. Don’t ask where or when I obtained that stop sign..
Then I move on to the stones, progressing from 400 to 8000 grit until I have a near-mirror finish on the bevel.
Finished with sharpening the blade. Beer time!
All right, let’s put it back together and try it out.
Doesn’t look bad for a tool that’s been around since the Theodore Roosevelt administration.
Once it’s reassembled and with the plane body under tension, it’s time to make sure the sole is flat. I use the same Sharpie technique as the blade flattening. This one was already close to flat; it didn’t take much to tune it up.
Another view.
I tried it out on a piece of scrap pine - Not the most challenging wood, but that’s what’s on hand. The plane makes nice even cuts and leaves a smooth surface. I’d say it works as well as it did 112 years ago. My verdict: Good deal, it was worth the fifty dollars for me.
Nice tight, curled shavings.
Finally, this is our seven year old granddaughter showing off her very first fish — A nice crappie, bigger than my hand. I’m holding the fish and taking the photo at the same time because earlier in the day, she watched me reel in a largish (~26-27”) northern pike that had a set of formidable teeth. It took pliers to get the hook out and I still got a couple of pokes that drew blood while it was thrashing around. She wanted nothing to do with getting anywhere near her fish, even though it had no teeth to speak of.
When I put it back in the water, she said “We should have kept it. I tried sushi last year and didn’t like it then, but my tastes have changed.” Kids amaze me. Who knows? Maybe her taste for raw fish really has changed. Maybe crappie is actually good for sushi.
She’s here for a couple weeks because despite COVID-19 still being with us big time, family crap still happens. It’ll work out. Enough said. So now we self-isolate for the next ten days or so. The upside: We haven’t seen her since Christmas, so that’s a nice thing. The downside: Seven year olds have a shitload of energy.
Making grandpa proud. My dream is for her to grow up and host her own fishing show. Or be elected president. I’m good with either scenario.
Side story. I took her for her first ride ever in a convertible — A ‘72 Ford LTD we’ve had for years. (I think I paid $1500 for it back in ‘85.) When I lowered the top, her eyes got real wide and she asked me “Is this legal for a seven year old?” OMG, you can’t make this stuff up.
400 cubic inches of genuine American V8 power. 11 mpg.
Then she discovered manual window crank handles for the first time. And a push button radio that doesn’t have a screen to tell you what song is playing. Priceless.
Stay safe, everyone!