Well, I’ve now officially inherited a whole bunch of hand tools, many antique. My Dad passed away last November, after a good 10+ years of yard sales and antique stores. I brought home two boxes of hand planes alone, among them a dozen wood molding planes. I’ve also got a stack of books on the subject to go through, so ultimately I’ve got quite a lot of information to digest.
For now, though, I don’t have anything like time to spend on these things – I’ve got kitchen cabinets to finish building, the annual holiday gut to shrink down before bike riding season starts in earnest, and a gazillion other lesser tasks. Oh, and an almost 6 year old son and a full time job.
So what’s the best way to make sure all these hand tools don’t deteriorate? I fear that I’ll find some time to pay attention to these at some point, and find the corrugated-sole No. 7 entombed in rust, or the molding planes splitting along some unseen grain line. I’ve got them out in my unheated garage now – might they be better off indoors? Would wiping Boeshield on the metal parts be advisable? Like I said, I can’t spend a lot of time on them, but I want them secured for future enjoyment.
Thanks in advance –
did
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Yup, I'd move them inside, wax, oil or your special stuff on the steel and iron. Clean the sawdust out of the mouths of the planes (tends to hold moisture).
I'd back the irons out of the woodies. Pack everything in a chest and toss in some Silica Gel packs.
But the best thing is to look at them regularly and deal with rust when it forms while it is superficial.
David C
OK, gots 'em inside now, and I've cleared space on the bookshelves so's I can look at 'em. Now, I've got to ask about the coffin-shaped scrub plane I'm fondling right now. The iron is tapered - over 1/8" thick at the business end, half that at the other end - and there's a cap iron, too. The bevel end is neither square nor radiused - it's almost square across the middle, but with large radii (probably 3/8 - 1/2") at the corners, so it won't dig in or leave sharp ridges. The iron is stamped "Ohio Tool Company Thistle Brand."What is this thing? It's about 8" long, 2 1/2" wide or so.I'll try to take some pics of the things soon, too.Thanks for the advising!did<!---->Cure Diabetes - Whitefish, Montana, 2007!<!---->
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Did,
It sounds like you called it right; it's a scrub plane. From my limited experience a scrub plane has little need of a cap iron and I'll assume the blade assembly is held in place with a wedge. It sounds like this plane started life as a coffin shaped smoother. The Ohio Tool Co. probably made thousands of them. Your father converted it to a scrubber.
Don't forget those pictures.
-Chuck
Undoubtedly the tool in your hand is a coffin shaped smooth plane and not a scrub plane, but no matter.
The first thing to do is yank out all the irons, making sure to keep the wedges with the plane bodies and identify which irons go with which plane body. These things are all mated together and generally can't or shouldn't be swapped.
Take the irons, seperate the cap irons if present (again keeping caps mated to blades with some sort of label or the like) then submerge all the blades, caps,and screws (of the wooden planes at least) in kerosene. You can stop there.
Next step is to buy or read Mike Dunbar's "Restoring Tuning and Using classic hand tools", maybe Garret Hack's book etc.
If time permits, carefully determine if any of your tools are museum pieces. Consult the tomes "British plane makers" and the American equivalent (who's name escapes me). DON"T CLEAN ANYTHING until you know what you have and what you are doing. Its pretty easy to remove all value from an otherwise valuable tool by giving it a seemingly sensible cleaning.
From my perspective, I'm less interested in preserving history as I am the value of the planes themselves. Perserving history is great too- don't get me wrong. But if you are looking for a reason to be cautiously curatorial or stewardly, think of the money.
Adam
I'd guess that the coffin plane was modified at some point to be a scrub plane, as you suggest (it wasn't by my Dad, I know that for sure). In addition to the sorta radiused iron, the sole seems to have had a lamination of wood added to it, and that lamination is slightly curved side-to-side. All the modern scrub planes I've seen are flat all across.There's also a Stanley #132 transitional jointer plane - sucker's huge!did<!---->Cure Diabetes - Whitefish, Montana, 2007!<!---->
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Is it possible that the plane was modified to shape chair seats with the curved sole? The description fits that of a Japanese plane I have for carving out the seats.
It's slightly curved side-to-side, but pretty much flat front to back, so you really couldn't plane out hollows. I suppose it might just be wear, but it's pretty uniform looking.I'll try to get pics tonight...did<!---->Cure Diabetes - Whitefish, Montana, 2007!<!---->
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That is exactly what I used to shape the seat on some highchairs. The initial shaping was gouged out and then smoothed with such a plane.
Quit your job, put your son in boarding school, lock yourself in the shop and tell your wife not to disturb you except to bring food and drink, empty the chamber pot or report that the house is on fire. It's all about priorities.
Another option: Mail them to me and I'll restore them to good working order. Then I'l road test them for you to make sure they all work properly. That way they won't rust anymore and I will be able to use them.
It sounds like I would be able to use them for quite some time! :) :) :)
Just kidding, but the sooner you get the rust of them, the better. I would remove all the iron parts, clean the crap out of them, lay the parts on cotton cloth and spray them with WD-40. Don't worry about overspray, the more the better. Wrap them up them bring them all inside to a controlled climate.
You may want to label them. Periodically check them and apply more WD-40 as necessary. If you find time, spray adhesive several different grits of sandpaper to some glass plates and sand off the rust, as time permits.
If the rust pits the iron, you may have an unresolvable problem if anf when you get time to work on them. At least the WD-40 will stall it.
Hope this helps,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
Kidderville, NH
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
did,
Hope yours aren't in the same or worse shape as the ones I recently inherited. I got a previous batch that I've nearly restored back to working condition. I'll be posting them when finished. Here's one from the first batch.
See "It's a crying shame" post.
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
Kidderville, NH
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Wow, nice transformation. For the most part, nothing that bad, though there's a pretty pitted block plane in there.One o' these days I'll find my camera (and some time)...
did<!---->Cure Diabetes - Whitefish, Montana, 2007!<!---->
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did,
If you like, I will document my process and post it here, when I get time.
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
Kidderville, NH
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
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