steven c newman
06-25-2012, 3:04 PM
Ok Bought three handplanes at a yard sale awhile back. two I've since resold. The Third one is just like the first two. Someone had done a quick clean and pretty paint job on all three. Black Paint Central! Any bare metal (except the soles) got a coat of cheap gloss black. No sign og trying to clean off any rust, no prep other than to remove the wooden items first. Spray em down nice and thick, fills in the pitting that way. Tip-off ? Who would paint the sides of a Bedrock, or a Stanley S4, or even a Sargent made DE jack plane? The buyer for the first had planned on a strip and refinish anyway. However, that #5 was just going to the "bay". I heard about the first two being "cover-ups" so.....
Frog: Black paint on everything, so sticky I had to (gently) pry it loose from the base. bearing surfaces on the base? Black paint. Frog seems to be a later Sargent style, but even the lateral was BLACK. The bolt that the lever cap hooks onto, yep, BLACK. Even the lever cap....Black. Stripped the black off the frog, pit-city. Bare metal now has a case of "Black Measles":eek: Bearing surfaces are now scraped clean, and smooth. Even that bolt got cleaned. The lever cap... got left as is. Looked a little rough right through the paint (let sleeping dog lie):D
Iron: Rusty, and installed bevel UP.:confused: With a chip breaker on the bevel. Ok, we can clean the rust.....Ah a Diamond Edge stamp! Someone had painted the bolt between the iron and breaker.......GOLD? :confused: Must have run out of black?:confused: Sharpened the iron, got rid of the yellow colour, cleaned and polished both the iron and breaker, re-installed the RIGHT way, bevel down.
Sides of the base; Black, what else.:mad: Didn't clean it off, could see a lot of "roughness" through the paint layers. Another sleeping dog.:D This is a 13-3/4" long jack plane. No breaks ( this time, but I tend to watch out for such things) the handles are sound. Might still clean all the way up, someday. For now, send it to Ebay.
When you are out doing the rust hunt, beware of things that look like it was never used. New paint will hide a LOT of problems. Hold a painted item at an angle so you can see below the shine. On planes, see if you can look under the lever cap, and if you can look under the irons. Run a finger along all sides, slowly. You'll feel things better that way. Did I get "burned'? Not this time, $60 for three like these, kind of hard to be burned. BUT, next time, I will look beyond the names...:eek:
Frog: Black paint on everything, so sticky I had to (gently) pry it loose from the base. bearing surfaces on the base? Black paint. Frog seems to be a later Sargent style, but even the lateral was BLACK. The bolt that the lever cap hooks onto, yep, BLACK. Even the lever cap....Black. Stripped the black off the frog, pit-city. Bare metal now has a case of "Black Measles":eek: Bearing surfaces are now scraped clean, and smooth. Even that bolt got cleaned. The lever cap... got left as is. Looked a little rough right through the paint (let sleeping dog lie):D
Iron: Rusty, and installed bevel UP.:confused: With a chip breaker on the bevel. Ok, we can clean the rust.....Ah a Diamond Edge stamp! Someone had painted the bolt between the iron and breaker.......GOLD? :confused: Must have run out of black?:confused: Sharpened the iron, got rid of the yellow colour, cleaned and polished both the iron and breaker, re-installed the RIGHT way, bevel down.
Sides of the base; Black, what else.:mad: Didn't clean it off, could see a lot of "roughness" through the paint layers. Another sleeping dog.:D This is a 13-3/4" long jack plane. No breaks ( this time, but I tend to watch out for such things) the handles are sound. Might still clean all the way up, someday. For now, send it to Ebay.
When you are out doing the rust hunt, beware of things that look like it was never used. New paint will hide a LOT of problems. Hold a painted item at an angle so you can see below the shine. On planes, see if you can look under the lever cap, and if you can look under the irons. Run a finger along all sides, slowly. You'll feel things better that way. Did I get "burned'? Not this time, $60 for three like these, kind of hard to be burned. BUT, next time, I will look beyond the names...:eek: