Town yard sale

[George Sanders]

I went to a nearby town wide yard sale yesterday and found a few things. An 18" wood rasp. 3 Disston hand saws for a dollar each. The blades are 5, 8, TPI. A Montgomery Ward #7 hand plane and a Craftsman scrub plane, both made by Sergeant. The wood rasp was made by Stokes Bros. of Freehold N.J. It is a no. 30E Improved. It also has 2 Maltese crosses stamped into it as part of the logo which leads me to believe it was sold prior to the first WW. To me, the last picture is the most important.:D

[Robby Tacheny]

Congrats. I picked up a #4 Stanley this weekend for $23. You probably spent $23, but it was for all those tools AND lunch!!

Its nice to find old tools and know that you'll bring them back to life to work another day. Its also nice to get them for next to nothing. That way you feel less bad if you have to put money into them to get them working again.

Please show pictures when you get that stuff shiny again!

-R

[George Sanders]

The saws and the scrub plane are in the spooge tank right now.

[Robby Tacheny]

Ha! So is my #4. I am going to give it scrub before lunch.

I don't know about you, but I really like the idea of towns that are willing to do things like that. I live in a nice small town where there are yardsales every weekend. The whole town shuts down for a weekend in October and there is a huge craft festival that draws in about 100k people. It takes a certain kind of place.

Sounds like you live in or near a special sort of area too!

-R

[George Sanders]

Here's a pic of what a clean saw looks like. It's a Disston D-8 and you can barely make out the etching. I found a link for a product that darkens brass and can be used to darken the etching on saws. I plan to do that on all of mine. Next I need to refinish the handles.

[Bill Houghton]

I went to a nearby town wide yard sale yesterday and found a few things. An 18" wood rasp. 3 Disston hand saws for a dollar each. The blades are 5, 8, TPI. A Montgomery Ward #7 hand plane and a Craftsman scrub plane, both made by Sergeant. The wood rasp was made by Stokes Bros. of Freehold N.J. It is a no. 30E Improved. It also has 2 Maltese crosses stamped into it as part of the logo which leads me to believe it was sold prior to the first WW. To me, the last picture is the most important.:D

You described the smaller plane as a "scrub." It looks to me more like a No. 4 smoothing plane. The Wards (especially, it seems, "Wards Master") and Craftsman planes of certain eras were made by major makers and can be very good unrecognized gems.

Is the rasp flat on both faces, and does the other side have coarse file teeth? If so, it's probably a horse rasp, used, I believe, for shaping hooves while shoeing - hooves grow like toenails, and need to be trimmed back. I found one link to a double-ended horse rasp: http://www.antonline.com/p_17903-GP_347745.htm. Most of the horse rasps I find around here are single-ended, like regular files. Still useful for wood shaping, even though it originally had a different purpose.

[George Sanders]

It is flat on both sides. You may be right. Both of the planes are definitely by Sergeant.

[Jim Koepke]

Nice haul George.

Could you post the link to the product that darkens the etch on saws. I think Bob Smalser mentioned something to do this at one time, but I like to have other options.

jim

[George Sanders]

Here's the link: www.Rufkahrs.com

[George Sanders]

I forgot. It's called antiqueing solution

[Randal Stevenson]

spooge tank


What is that? (what do you use for a tank/how large and what is your solution)

Thanks

[Liam Murphy]

The rasp caught my attention because I one lived in Freehold. However, I knew nothing of Stokes Bros prior to this. I did some searching a found a NY Times article from 1899 which supports the idea that it's a horse rasp.

here you go (http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9B02E6DA1338E733A25751C2A9629C94689ED7CF)-

[George Sanders]

So it's a horse rasp. Dang gummit; now I gotta go buy a horse to go with it!

[George Sanders]

Randy, do a web search on electrolysis. There are lots of web sites that explain it much better than I can.

[Bill Houghton]

So it's a horse rasp. Dang gummit; now I gotta go buy a horse to go with it!

At least it wasn't an elephant rasp (longer, coarser teeth).

[David Keller NC]

George - You may wish to date your Disstons before going too far in re-finishing. A later or more common Disston has no risk of a "doh!" moment when someone tells you that a collector would've paid hundreds for a particular saw, but some of the earlier ones do. Even some of them made in the early teens are collector's items - it depends on the model, length, and condition.

You usually date most Disstons by the medallion - check out the Disstonian Institute for a dateline on changes to the saw medallions (heck, you might want to know when your saws were made regardless of whether they're collector's items - I generally do).

[Randal Stevenson]

Randy, do a web search on electrolysis. There are lots of web sites that explain it much better than I can.


That is why I asked what I asked. I've really been trying to find some kind of post comparing, electrolysis, to things like citric acid, and those other metal cleaners (when to use which, or how bad does it need to be).

Thanks
Randal

[David Keller NC]

Randall - One comment on the use of acidic cleaners like phosphoric (naval jelly), acetic (vinegar) and citric, as well as electrolysis - all of these methods will partially or totally remove the etch on an old saw. This is why, I think, that Pete Tarran's method involves using a scraper (typically a single-edge razor blade) and a solvent like mineral spirits to clean up the saw plate.

[George Sanders]

I always check the mentioned site before I do anything to a saw. None of my saws are earlier than 1896-1917 period. My 28" miter saw falls into that period. It was with my Goodall-Pratt miter machine. Some of the saws I've cleaned today have spots of pitting in the teeth. They may break when trying to set them. I have a shiny one from the 1950's that was purchased new by my dad and it still has the price tag on it of $1.95. This saw will out perform anything sold today.

[Jim Koepke]

Here's the link: www.Rufkahrs.com

Thanks,

jim