I arrived home today in time to greet the postman with a package from Lie-Nielsen. I have been waiting excitedly for this one for sometime …
I must take you back several weeks before I can tell you what was inside. I had won a LN #140 on eBay quite cheaply – really. It was well below half price, which is unusual for LN products, which tend to resell for near new prices. The reason was that the plane was very tarnished and missing parts. Obviously no one likes cleaning LNs! It looked like this …
I poilished it up, derusted the blade, cleaned up the knob and ordered the missing fence and side plate from LN. I thought that I might as well upgrade it completely, so also ordered the nicker, which I planned to install myself.
Well, it did not turn out quite the way I planned. The fence rod was frozen solid and nothing I tried remotely appeared to be shifting it. The side plate did not fit (it was short by about ¼”), And I realized that the blade was quite a thin affair, about the same as a standard Stanley, quite unlike the thick LNs I have handled. To top it all, the colour was a lighter hew, like champagne, and I even wondered if the plane was indeed an original LN.
Here it was, surrounded by some more LN bronze ..
So I contacted Thomas Lie-Nielsen and we found differences in the sizes of parts for this plane and the current LN #140. Thomas said that he would be happy to sort it out, so I sent the plane to him (this must be the most travelled #140 in the world … USA to Australia to USA and back to Australia…. It turns out that the plane was indeed interesting. According to Thomas, it was an early model made around 1985. The bronze used was a different composition. The blade was W1. And slightly wider than current models (so the current model comes from a different casting). Thomas managed to find a thick piece of W1 and had a new (thick) blade made to fit the body.
Here are the blades side-by-side, new and old …
Looking good … new blade and new nicker …
With the new side piece …
And I thought the new fence was worthy of a slice of Tasmanian Blackwood …
The final result … a really lovely plane …
BUT WAIT …. THERE’S MORE!
In the package was a Auriou 15 grain rasp I ordered …..
….AND … Mike Leonard decided he’d send me a gift. Having seen the dovetail marker I made (and posted here last week), he sent me the LN one to play with. A big thank you Mike!
Hey, it’s almost as nice as mine! View Image
Thank you Thomas.
Regards from Perth
Derek
Replies
She cleaned up nicely! Always sweet to get a deal, but rare on E-bay
If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
Derek, that's pretty amazing. Sure looks great now! That little plane deserves its own passport.
(I'm going to have to get a bigger monitor, though. Can never see all of the pictures/text you post. Wonder if that argument will work with the Chief Financial Officer, LOL!?)
Derek,
Great post.
I surmise that Thomas Lie Nielsen did all that for you, ONLY because he knows you are a friend of Lataxe, and he is trying to get on Lataxe's good side. :-)
You did good.
Mel
Measure your output in smiles per board foot.
"I surmise that Thomas Lie Nielsen did all that for you, ONLY because he knows you are a friend of Lataxe, and he is trying to get on Lataxe's good side."
Easily done - he just has to send me an example of all the planes in his catalogue (and a LH 140 to Charles, which might shut him up for ten minutes).
However, it is more likely that I need to get on his good side by sending him loads of my money for only one or two of his planes. Like Charles I want a LH 140 as I like the RH one a lot, for all sorts of little jobs.
Lataxe, no one special, believe me.
Beautiful work! What else is there to say except I'd bet you had fun!
Don't you just love it when a company cares about it tools and the user of the tool, even if that user was not an original purchaser or customer.
My initial LN tools were obtained thru Fine Tool Journal because of the 10% discount and free shipping. Since then I have dealt directly with LNToolworks because I appreciate the quality of their tools. Every experience I have had with LN Toolworks (half dozen so far) has been excellent, starting with the people on the phone, to Tom Lie-Nielsen personally responding to an email I had sent to the company. I am so pleased with them I don't begrudge them the 10% or the shipping charges.
. . . and NO, I do not usually write fan letters.
Thanks for the post. It's nice to hear good things about vendors. There are many posts like yours about Lie-Nelson.
Lie-Nielsen is at the top of my list of vendors when I start down the slippery slope of hand tools. They seem to be of the highest quality and their customer service can't be topped. Since I've spent so much this year on the power tools to outfit my shop, I'm waiting for the bills to catch up with the money coming in before I present my plan to SWMBO for some L-N planes.
Derek,
I saw that plane a while back on ebay - and thought it might be a little too much trouble to get back into shape so I did not bid.
The other reason I didn't try for it was I had just won (via "buy it now") the left handed version of LN's 140 for $133 shipped. Barely used of course! Just happened to be in the right place at the right time I guess.
So, did you come out ahead price wise fixing this one up? I would think the shipping back and forth woulf have killed any savings you might have enjoyed.
Lee
Hi Lee
I think I may have broken even (at best guess - I'm too afraid to tot up the costs!) with the price of the #140 in bronze as sold in Oz. It would have been a big saving had all gone to the original plan ... however ...
I look at it this way. I have not "lost" (much if any) money over the cost of a new model. And this one is SO much more interesting. Every time I pull it out I will be reminded of the friendly words and chat with Thomas, and that the plane is a little special too in terms of its history (that it is old enough to have one - it is old enough to vote and get a driver's licence, even old enough to drink).
Now I have a Stanley #140 with LN blade and spare SW blade to sell. The plane that featured in its own article about restoration. The plane that cut a thousand tenons. The plane .............
Regards from Perth
Derek
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