Todd Ferrante
06-14-2009, 9:06 AM
My Dad has been interested in wooden boats for years and has made a wooden kayak. About 5 years ago he asked me to keep my eyes open for some planes he might use for wooden boatbuilding someday. At the time, I had mostly power tools and just one handplane I had picked up at a garage sale years before that. I had inexpertly cleaned it up and sharpened it using the technique I had been taught in high school shop class.
That summer he and I went to a big flea market near where I grew up and we picked up a few planes for a couple dollars each. We were in the process of cleaning them up when we heard about a local estate auction, so we went looking for more planes.
Anti-gloat 1: They had a two boxes of medium sized planes and parts as well as a big plane. After waiting for hours, sometimes in the pouring rain they finally came to the planes. After paying a couple dollars each for the flea market planes, I was hoping to get the others for about $5 each. The auctioneer pointed to the two boxes which held about 6 planes each and said they were selling them by the piece. That meant you did one bid cycle and paid that price times the number of items. Me and another guy bid on the planes until he won with a bid of $12. I just couldn't see paying six times what I had payed at the flea market. Besides, I figured, there are over a dozen planes here, he'll take a few and we'll rebid on what is left. The auctioneer asks the guy if he wants them both and the guy says, "Yes." I just about fainted. I (and the people around me) thought we were bidding on the price per plane. The auctioneer was selling each box. So the guy got all those planes for under $25. I was so hopping mad that when they sold the big plane next, I wasn't going to loose. Even though it had damage, I paid $14 for that plane just so the other guy couldn't have it, too. I took that plane home, cleaned it up and did some serious reading up on planes and how to fettle them and use them properly. It turns out that the big plane I got is a Stanley 607. I have to wonder if the other planes in those boxes were also bedrock planes. The memory of that auction still haunts me to this day.
Fast forward to the present. Of course I got hooked on working with planes. I have bought and fettled a number of them and have integrated hand techniques with my normal power tool methods of work. I've kept my eyes open at garage sales and flea markets and will pick up planes if they are cheap to see if I can clean them up and use them. I'm not a collector by any means. I buy them to use them. The first duplicate plane that I got was cleaned up extra nicely, sharpened until I could shave with it, and given to my Dad as a Christmas present. Of course, I have a few planes now that are in need of various parts, broken totes being the most common problem.
Mini-gloat: Yesterday I was out doing my normal Saturday tour of the local yard sales. Like usual, old wood working tools are nowhere to be found. Then I came upon a sale with a huge stack of woodworking magazines. I bought them all as well as a big, wide chisel looking thing I just thought looked neat. I had a sneaking suspicion and did some googling. Turns out it is an old caulking iron from the days of wooden boatbuilding. One of the web pictures showed some different styles of irons, and I realized that there was one other caulking iron at that sale I had not bought. Thinking I would like to give the pair to my Dad for fathers day, I went back to the sale, even though it was after hours. Turns out the guy selling the tools was the father of the lady running the sale and he lived half an hour away. I got his number and paid him a visit last evening. I did buy the other caulking iron from him and will clean the pair up for my Dad.
Anti-gloat 2: Dave was the name of the tool guy. My wife and I had a very nice time as he and his wife showed us around their house looking at the antique furniture he restores. I really liked seeing his shop and his several collections of antique tools. He has a nice collection of wooden planes he uses, but never got bit by the steel plane bug. He showed me his wood storage room and we got to talking about rosewood. I said I was always looking out for rosewood I might use to repair broken plane totes. That's when Dave dropped the bomb. He said that a number of years ago he bought a bunch of old tools at an estate sale of an old woodworker out in the country. One of the things he ended up with was a milk crate with a handful of plane bodies in it, but which was mostly full of rosewood totes and knobs from metal planes. It kicked around in Dave's shop for years, and he finally had hauled it out and sold the whole crate at the garage sale that morning, before I got there, for $10. I just about cried.
I know this is a long winded post, but I had to tell the story to an audience I knew would appreciate it. Call it group therapy. So, do you have any similar "one that got away" stories? If so, share them and make me feel better.
Now, it is off the local flea market to look at more old VCR tapes, used deoderant, and imported tool shaped objects...
Todd F.
That summer he and I went to a big flea market near where I grew up and we picked up a few planes for a couple dollars each. We were in the process of cleaning them up when we heard about a local estate auction, so we went looking for more planes.
Anti-gloat 1: They had a two boxes of medium sized planes and parts as well as a big plane. After waiting for hours, sometimes in the pouring rain they finally came to the planes. After paying a couple dollars each for the flea market planes, I was hoping to get the others for about $5 each. The auctioneer pointed to the two boxes which held about 6 planes each and said they were selling them by the piece. That meant you did one bid cycle and paid that price times the number of items. Me and another guy bid on the planes until he won with a bid of $12. I just couldn't see paying six times what I had payed at the flea market. Besides, I figured, there are over a dozen planes here, he'll take a few and we'll rebid on what is left. The auctioneer asks the guy if he wants them both and the guy says, "Yes." I just about fainted. I (and the people around me) thought we were bidding on the price per plane. The auctioneer was selling each box. So the guy got all those planes for under $25. I was so hopping mad that when they sold the big plane next, I wasn't going to loose. Even though it had damage, I paid $14 for that plane just so the other guy couldn't have it, too. I took that plane home, cleaned it up and did some serious reading up on planes and how to fettle them and use them properly. It turns out that the big plane I got is a Stanley 607. I have to wonder if the other planes in those boxes were also bedrock planes. The memory of that auction still haunts me to this day.
Fast forward to the present. Of course I got hooked on working with planes. I have bought and fettled a number of them and have integrated hand techniques with my normal power tool methods of work. I've kept my eyes open at garage sales and flea markets and will pick up planes if they are cheap to see if I can clean them up and use them. I'm not a collector by any means. I buy them to use them. The first duplicate plane that I got was cleaned up extra nicely, sharpened until I could shave with it, and given to my Dad as a Christmas present. Of course, I have a few planes now that are in need of various parts, broken totes being the most common problem.
Mini-gloat: Yesterday I was out doing my normal Saturday tour of the local yard sales. Like usual, old wood working tools are nowhere to be found. Then I came upon a sale with a huge stack of woodworking magazines. I bought them all as well as a big, wide chisel looking thing I just thought looked neat. I had a sneaking suspicion and did some googling. Turns out it is an old caulking iron from the days of wooden boatbuilding. One of the web pictures showed some different styles of irons, and I realized that there was one other caulking iron at that sale I had not bought. Thinking I would like to give the pair to my Dad for fathers day, I went back to the sale, even though it was after hours. Turns out the guy selling the tools was the father of the lady running the sale and he lived half an hour away. I got his number and paid him a visit last evening. I did buy the other caulking iron from him and will clean the pair up for my Dad.
Anti-gloat 2: Dave was the name of the tool guy. My wife and I had a very nice time as he and his wife showed us around their house looking at the antique furniture he restores. I really liked seeing his shop and his several collections of antique tools. He has a nice collection of wooden planes he uses, but never got bit by the steel plane bug. He showed me his wood storage room and we got to talking about rosewood. I said I was always looking out for rosewood I might use to repair broken plane totes. That's when Dave dropped the bomb. He said that a number of years ago he bought a bunch of old tools at an estate sale of an old woodworker out in the country. One of the things he ended up with was a milk crate with a handful of plane bodies in it, but which was mostly full of rosewood totes and knobs from metal planes. It kicked around in Dave's shop for years, and he finally had hauled it out and sold the whole crate at the garage sale that morning, before I got there, for $10. I just about cried.
I know this is a long winded post, but I had to tell the story to an audience I knew would appreciate it. Call it group therapy. So, do you have any similar "one that got away" stories? If so, share them and make me feel better.
Now, it is off the local flea market to look at more old VCR tapes, used deoderant, and imported tool shaped objects...
Todd F.