I found a very rusty old number 5 Stanley woodworking plane the other day that I paid 20$ for. The plane was so rusty I figured I might be wasting money but what the heck right! Anyway, after disassembling it as best I could and then cleaning and soaking it for 18ish hours in a diluted vinegar bath I started cleaning it up. Surprisingly, there is almost no pitting in the bed. The blade is pitted in places and I'm having a tedious time getting the back of the blade flat but making progress there. I had to use quite a bit of gentle persuasion and some heat and tapping with a steel rod and a hammer against the frog adjustment screw as it had rusted in place. However it eventually loosened up. However, there is one screw that is immovable and I'm not actually sure it can be removed. Does anyone know if the screw that sits right next to the frog adjustment screw can be removed or should be removed? It has resisted all efforts to loosen it up. Photo attached:
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The rear handle is in excellent shape under the grime but there is a hairline crack in the front knob which I think I can fix with a little epoxy. The blade has the SW heart icon and label. The brass adjusting nut has a small dent. In summary, this is cleaning up very well. The nickel coating (or whatever it is) on the lever cap is all peeling off so I'm just removing the rest of it as there is only about 30% still remaining. I'm toying with the idea of re-applying the coating myself. I was considering turning it into a scrub plane but now I'm not so sure. I have two number 5 planes, one is a winchester and another is a stanley and neither have that screw so I'm not sure whether to just leave it alone or what.