Score!!! I think?

[Al Launier]

Well today I "ran into" an estate sale as I was running errands. Decided to check it out for hand tools. This is whatI picked in the condition that I bought them at. The planes are now undergoing initial cleanup in WD-40. There is a fair amount of rust, but the base metal is very sound with hardly any rust pitting. The block plane is a Stanley & at this time I don't know what make the other is. If any of you know, plwease letme know. I paid atotal of $3.00 for the both of these. Yes that number is correct - three dollars!

The wood measures 4" x 10" x 6' 6" each. They are "very old", well aged as the previous owner had kept it in his shed for many, many years & very heavy. There are some cracks, some sand on the surfaces (that I hosed off) & one has a couple nails in it that I'll remove. One is hickory, the other is walnut. I paid atotal of $12 for the both of them, youp that'd twelve dollars.

I'm excited about cleaning up the planes & wood & processing them through my shop to see what is there.

Picctures of the wood is in the next post.

[Al Launier]

Pictures of the wood:

[Jim Matthews]

Fifteen bucks?

You suck.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Where is the mystery 2C?

Wrong thread, maybe?


:D :D

[Al Launier]

Guess I'm older school than I thought. Why do I suck & I don't follow with the "mystery 2C"?

Since I have so little experience with planes, compared to most of you woodworkers, I'm still wondering what make the larger plane is? No brand name on the tool. Any ideas?

[Patrick McCarthy]

"You suck" is a backhanded compliment; it is not an insult.

[steven c newman]

Looks like a Sargent made #3 size bench plane....maybe a #408???

[Stew Denton]

Al,

+1 what Jim and Patrick said. As Patrick hinted at, Jim's comment is the traditional greeting on this bulletin board when someone does a post like you did where it appears that they came away with a very nice find for very little money. I don't know how it got started here, but on this board it is the equivalent of saying "wow, you did really well, great job!"

Stew

[Chuck Hart]

You Suck Can't buy 2ft of walnut that thick for $15 much less the rest of the stuff. I repeat you suck

[Al Launier]

"You suck" is a backhanded compliment; it is not an insult.

Thanks Patrick!

[Al Launier]

Ho Boy! Now I feel better. Gotta get with the lingo.

I have to finish up a cutting board(s) project, then it's onto the thickness planer to skim down the timber. I'm anxious to see what lies below. My wife thinks I'm crazy for buying these "rotted pieces of wood", but hopefully I know better. They each weigh a ton; must weigh 30-40 lbs. each.

[bob blakeborough]

Ho Boy! Now I feel better. Gotta get with the lingo.



Now you are going to be waiting on the edge of your seat for the opportunity to throw a "you suck!" back at someone else! Haha! You wait and see...

[Stew Denton]

Hi Al,

If the lumber looks good after you run it through the planer, please post a photo. Have you done any thinking about potential projects to use the lumber in?

Regards,

Stew

[Kent A Bathurst]

I don't follow with the "mystery 2C"?

There was a thread some weeks back started by a guy that had been given a 2C by someone that had no idea what it was worth, which stirred up a low-octane debate/discussion. Bit of an obscure inside reference/joke.

[Kent A Bathurst]

"You suck" is a backhanded compliment; it is not an insult.


Often stated more succinctly by this "one picture worth a thousand words". :p :p



311831

[Jim Matthews]

They each weigh a ton; must weigh 30-40 lbs. each.

One of them will be a genuine prize.
Hard to say which, from the photos.

Do you have a metal detector, or can you borrow one?

[Bill Brush]

I would give the planes a dip in Evaporust. About 12 hours in that stuff and 95% of the rust will be gone.

[Al Launier]

Hi Al,

If the lumber looks good after you run it through the planer, please post a photo. Have you done any thinking about potential projects to use the lumber in?

Regards,

Stew

Will do Stew!

[Chris Hachet]

Fifteen bucks?

You suck.

Agreed! Very jealous of this little find....I need to head north to see Steven C Neuman....

[Al Launier]

Well I couldn't wait any longer to see what the old planks would give me. I washed the sand off with a hose, let the wood dry for a few days, checked for nails & removed the two that I could find, used the hand belt sander to remove the high spots in preparation for the planer, then proceeded to remove the "scale". Handling these bulky, heavy planks (~40 lbs) were awkward in a small shop.

It wasn't until about the third pass of 1/32" DOC each, that I heard a "ping". Crap! Just clipped another nail head. The nail wasn't noticed before & it was about the size of an 8P nail. Removal was easy; it broke off about 1/2" below surface. It was an old "rectangular" nail from the good 'old days & very hard. Finished planing both sides without further incident.

The second plank was a different story. This time the "ping" was a slightly more noticeable. It was another hard rectangular nail that I hadn't found earlier, but larger than the first nail. Removal of this nail was a real chore as it took quite a bit of excavation & about 15-20 minutes of effort, and this one broke off about ¾” below the surface. After this no more incidents & I completed the rough planing of the second plank. At this point they are both 3 5/8" thick.

In each case the nail heads were barely clipped, but I’m still not looking forward to checking out the blades. Glad they're reversible.

Now that I've "exposed the planks for what they are, I'm not sure what to do with them. They have a number of cracks leaving little to salvage. Glad I only spent $12 for the pair. Also, I was told one was hickory & one was walnut. I don't know my woods, but it seems that both planks were hickory. Hard to tell when in the rough. Lesson(s) learned!

[Jim Koepke]

Mallet handles?

jtk

[Stew Denton]

Al,

One thought I had would be to use the planks as two foot pieces for the legs to mortise into for a work bench base, or perhaps the top piece of the trellises that the top of the work bench sets on. Fill the cracks with epoxy, you can work it in deeply into the cracks with a putty knife. You might think about ways to color the epoxy so that it will match the color of the finished lumber. I am not sure what you could do to color the epoxy, but I have a set of kids chalks in one of my carpenters tool boxes, and I am thinking that perhaps some of that could be powdered and added to one of the two parts of the epoxy before it is mixed. You would have to do some experimenting.

The planks are big enough that I would be tempted to use them for some purpose like that so to take advantage of the size, but that you didn't need finish grade lumber for. With epoxy to fill and strengthen the cracks, and perhaps Dutchmen to fill the spots where you had to dig out the nails, if carefully done, they might not look too bad.


Just a though for a possible use. I don't have a workbench yet, and have thought about one, so that may be why using them in a bench comes to my mind.

For the price you gave for them, I don't think you did too bad at all, especially if you come up with a good use for them.


Stew

[Al Launier]

Well, I decided to resaw the planks into 1" boards & see where that takes me. There are a number of splits, but there is also a fair amount of salvagable wood. Included is a pic of the naoil that was buried in one of the planks. Just barely clipped the top of it with the planer. Going to get a metal detector this weekend to find nails before I clipp any more. Since the wood was very old I don't think much drying will be required, but it will be sticked until I'm ready to start a project with it.

My nephew would like a "Letter Box" to store important letters & his passport in a drawer below the letters. Think I'l give this a shot (without his knowing about it), but perhaps with a false bottom for his passport instead of a drawer. Don't know what size the box should be at this point, but will think of something???

[Mike Null]

Al

Congrats on the find.

I have in mind to build my grandson a writing box and thought these might provide some food for thought for your project.

https://www.google.com/search?q=writing+boxes+lap+desks&espv=2&biw=1680&bih=913&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=vmRDVZD-KIecNvLZgOgF&ved=0CEYQsAQ

[Al Launier]

Thanks Mike, really appreciate your suggestions!

[Mark Stutz]

Nice looking stuff. Too bad about the planer blades, though.

Have you had a chance to clean up those planes yet?

[Stew Denton]

Hi Al,

From the looks of the lumber, you did better than it looked like you might....much better. You came out great on the rust hunt on the lumber from what it looks like!

Stew

[Jim Koepke]

Yes, the lumber looks like the deal of the year.

jtk

[Jerry Olexa]

WOw.....you did GOOD!!!

[Robert Engel]

The block plane is a standard Stanley type nothing special. But you can get it in usable condition fairly easily.

The larger one looks like a #3 of some type.
In my experience, most planes without a name are (there's now easy way to put this) forgettable.
That being said (and not knowing what you're level of expectations are for hand tools) I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time trying to make this into your daily user.

Before you do anything check the condition of the blade and cap iron. Do some initial honing on the blade back with a fairly coarse stone to see if its even worth going further. If you can bet the blade back flattened (without spending half a day) then proceed to the next step, which is checking the flatness of the sole.

If both of these check out, you'll have a usable plane, but how usable, I have no idea. I note there is no frog adj. which is a game stopper for me.
The cheaper Stanley knock-offs (even some Stanleys themselves) are notorious for not holding the blade setting and you'll find this out when you try to use it.

Even if they don't pan out, you made good on the wood.

Good luck.

[Al Launier]

Cleaned up the planes. Not the best job, but certainly useable!
The use of "Krud Kutter" & then "Rust Free" removed most of the rust leaving a fair amount to sand off & left a dull stain throughout the surface. I sanded most of the remining rust & paint off, & then decided it was good enough. Compared to their original condition (reference first post) they've come a long way & for only $3 total for the two was/is a pleasant purchase!
Now onto another project!

[Jerry Olexa]

Nice job of cleanup...You brought them "back to life"..

[glenn bradley]

Guess I'm older school than I thought. Why do I suck & I don't follow with the "mystery 2C"?

Since I have so little experience with planes, compared to most of you woodworkers, I'm still wondering what make the larger plane is? No brand name on the tool. Any ideas?


"You suck" is a backhanded compliment; it is not an insult.

Right, its a good thing in this context. Kinda like . . .

312878

. . . for getting such a good deal.

[Al Launier]

Referencing item#1 on page 2 what do you think this wood really is? It's definitely not Walnut and I don't believe it's Hickory as I was originally told. The wood was so old & rough it was impossible for me to tell, so I took the guy's word for it.
Since then I've milled the planks down to useable(?) lumber & think it is probably NE Hemlock. It's very, very light, chips very easily when sawing or routing, is knotty, seems to split on its own without any influence from me that I know of, and the grain appears to match some images of NE Hemlock that I've Googled. It's not a wood I would want to work with in the future as I've had to really scramble to salvage enough useable wood to make the letter box that I've been working on for way too long.
What are your thoughts as to wood type?????

[Karl Andersson]

Just based on the color and the hard/ soft differences in the rings, I'd say Hemlock or Douglas fir. I'd lean more towards DF because of the clear lengths - most Hemlock I've seen has been more knotty. Still nice-looking wood, although its age and dryness are probably what's causing you problems. It may not stain well, if that was your intent with the letter box, but some of the traditional Japanese finishing techniques were specifically developed to take advantage of softwood's characteristics. if interested, look up "uzukuri finish", charring, and/ or (lord help me) "polissoir" to see interesting effects of burnishing softwoods.

If you don't like those and want a flat surface, I'd build up the surface strength by starting with thinned BLO or tung oil for a few applications so it soaks as deeply as possible, then switch over to straight oil or varnish or shellac. Just my opinion... still very nice wood.
Karl

[Al Launier]

Finally, the finished product and I'll be giving it to my wife's nephew tomorrow. He asked if I would be willing to be "commissioned" to make a "Letter Box". I said no, knowing that he would pay me. So, I did this on the sly. Hopefully he'll find the "Portable Writing Desk", as I saw it called in one reference, to his satisfaction.

As this project turned out, the wood was definitely NOT Walnut or Hickory, I believe it is NE Hemlock based on the grain. It is a very frustrating wood to work with, at least for me. Having been stored in a barn for many, many years, it was extremely dry & light. While working it, it had a tendency to split frequently & chip/tear out more than normal, even with precautions taken. Several times the "finished " piece had to be made over again because of what I'm calling "spontaneous splitting, or bad chipping/tearout. Even after the lid was completed, but prior to staining, it split. You can see this in the picture(s). The yield from the (2) planks was just enough to provide barely enough wood to complete this project. So, I didn't have any more material & had to use Nexabond 2500 to glue it back together. Hopefully it doesn't show too much.

My nephew's stated he liked the appearance of wood "grain", so I guess he should have enough grain with this box. Also, I found out from his mother that he would place the "letter box" on his desk, which was dark with some red in it. So I used the following:


Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner - (1 coat)
Minwax Cherry stain - (2 coats not dark enough)
Minwax Special Walnut- (2 coats not dark enough)
Minwax Dark Walnut- (2 coats - close enough!)
Minwax Polycrilic- (3 coats)


The drawer knob was made by gluing a 3/8" dowel into a 3/4" dowel & the shaping it on my drill press with rat-tail & half-round files & sanding.

The "partitions" are removable to allow setting the desired spacing for "accessories".

I lined it with velvet, except I couldn't do the sides of the drawer as it was too deep & narrow to position the velvet accurately.

On to the next project???

[glenn bradley]

The box is just beautiful Al as is the gesture. A great thread about a fun journey triggered by "running into" an estate sale. Congrats.

[Jerry Olexa]

Very nice results!!!!

[Al Launier]

Thanks for the nice words. After spending 2 months on/off & the frustrations involved, I'm glad this project is over. However I did learn a few things & that's always a plus. I just hope my nephew is happy with it.

[Stew Denton]

Wow Al,

Beautiful! From you post with the photos of the writing desk, it looks like you kind of had a battle with the lumber splitting, but the final results are really nice.

Good job, and I am glad your garage sale planks turned out to be a great buy in the end.

Reminds me of what a friend said about a sculpture he met. He carved different things, and a fellow asked him about a horse he had beautifully carved, and asked him how he did such a nice job carving the horse. The fellow answered and said he just starts, and carves off everything that doesn't look like a horse.

You started with old planks and cut off every thing that didn't look like a writing desk. Again, nice job!

Stew

[Al Launier]

Guess I'm going with Karl Andersson's thought that the wood is most likely Douglas Fir rather than NE Hemlock as his perception makes sense to me.

I gave the "Portable Writing Desk" to Michael (age 34) yesterday & he was absolutely floored! Frankly I didn't expect his reaction. It was a total surprise, which was great, but his emotional response is unforgettable. In any event, although it was a frustrating project due to the difficulty working with this very old wood, it was very satisfying in the end.

Time to start another project, perhaps get the Christmas gifts going, whatever they may be???