original finish on Stanley transitional plane?

[Skip Helms]

Hi All,

I just got a fixer-upper No. 36 on Ebay. Usually I would leave as much character as possible but the body looks like it had black mold on the sides. That's more personality than I'd like so I plan to carefully sand off the spots. The tote and knob are clean and the rest of the parts are fine.

I've found lots of articles on how people restored theirs but haven't seen anything on the original finish. Any thoughts on how they left the factory? Thanks, sh

[Jim Koepke]

If you look at Patrick's Blood and Gore (a Google search brings that up as the first hit) he mentions varnish.

My guess is spray shellac would be fine.

jtk

[Skip Helms]

I usually have some shellac mixed so I'll hit it with that when I get the chance. Thanks Jim, sh

[don wilwol]

I believe the original finish was laquer.

I use tru oil.

[Kevin Hampshire]

Skip, glad to hear you're not using BLO on your transitional. If you like more of an original or vintage look, you may wish to avoid sanding.

I've had excellent luck with a light scraping (just where it's needed) followed by wiping on garnet shellac. This approximates and compliments the patina of most transitionals.

[Pat Barry]

Skip, glad to hear you're not using BLO on your transitional. If you like more of an original or vintage look, you may wish to avoid sanding..
Why is that? I did that myself. Why is it a mistake?

[lowell holmes]

I have a transitional plane in a display cabinet. I've never used it. It was a gift.

The question I have is why use it since I have an abundance of metal planes to use?

I favor my Bedrocks, but I must admit a #5 1/2 Bailey is one of my favorite planes.

[steven c newman]

BLO?
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Two coats on each....wax the sole, and away they go. These two are about half the weight of an iron bodied #7.....

[John Vernier]

I recently used some basic Zinnser Bullseye amber shellac from the local hardware store to touch up the finish on an old Stanley transitional smoother. It matched the original finish perfectly.

[Paul Sidener]

Hi All,

Usually I would leave as much character as possible but the body looks like it had black mold on the sides. That's more personality than I'd like so I plan to carefully sand off the spots. The tote and knob are clean and the rest of the parts are fine.



Before you start with sand paper try a good cleaning first. Mix up 1 part boiled linseed oil, 1 part Murphy's oil soap and 2 parts paste wax. Rub in that mixture with 0000 steel wool, then buff dry with a clean rag. You might have to do that a couple times. You will be surprised how well it works. I keep some in a mason jar, it works great. It will let the plane keep some of the personality of the plane.

[Mike Brady]

Why is that? I did that myself. Why is it a mistake? Oil makes beech look very blotchy and darkens the end grain. I have found beech planes to be very difficult to refinish and look anything like they did when newly made. You have to see a NOS plane to see what I mean. When Carl Bilderbeck was alive he had several of them. The finish was very yellow and even in tone. I have no idea how they achieved that, but I sprayed amber shellac on some new beech totes and knobs that I made and that finish was very close to original.
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee300/finefettle/Hignknob001.jpg (http://s234.photobucket.com/user/finefettle/media/Hignknob001.jpg.html)

[lowell holmes]

What is a NOS plane? I never heard that expression before.

[Kevin Hampshire]

In trying to answer the OP's original question, I don't know what the exact finish is that was used on transitional planes.

But, my experience is that sandpaper followed by BLO gives nothing at all close to the original or a vintage finish. While the judicious use of a scraper followed by an appropriately toned shellac can closely resemble a NOS finish or a vintage finish.

These were some quick shots and the colors aren't exactly right. The plane with the BLO is much darker and very blotchy. The difference is very pronounced in person versus these photos.

This plane was almost NOS (New Old Stock) but somebody had messed with it before I got it.

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A plane that was "oiled" up with BLO
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Vintage user condition finish

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[Kevin Hampshire]

This may be a better sample.

Can you guess which plane has the BLO on it?


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[steven c newman]

Starting to sound too much like "MY way or the highway"?
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What came in the mail. Left the wood alone..
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The Stanley No.29
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Ohio No. 035

The "yellow" someone was trying to replicate, well on the ones I've been rehabbing, the yellow was...PAINTED on. Looked more like "b. s. yellow" and was rather ugly.

[John Vernier]

Shellac was the original finish on transitional planes and on a lot of other wooden tools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was cheap and fast drying, which makes it much better for factory production lines than any oil or oil-based varnish. It was also used extensively on furniture at this period.

You can tell if an old finish is shellac by dissolving a small area of finish with alcohol on a Q-tip. It also has a distinctive smell which you can bring up by lightly sanding the old finish. I have found it is the usual finish on saw handles from this period as well as transitional planes. I think it was often applied by dipping, as I have occasionally found thickened sagging of the finish, for instance at the bottom of a plane tote, where the excess shellac has beaded when the piece was hung up to dry. Spray technology really came in at the same time as nitrocellulose lacquer in the 1920s - the automobile industry had been clamoring for a better finish than oil-based paints and varnishes, which were a huge bottleneck in their production. Furniture factories took up this technology as well, and if you look at a lot of furniture of the early 20th century the change in finish appearance is pretty obvious. I know that Disston started spraying their saw handles with lacquer at some point - it decays in a different way than shellac, first crazing and becoming semi-opaque, then disintegrating into a powder which comes off on your hands. I haven't seen a transitional plane with lacquer finish, though since these ware made into the 1940s it is possible that some were sprayed with lacquer, if the manufacturers bothered to update their methods.

[steven c newman]

About the easiest way to find out? Remove the framework, and look at the finish that remains there.....

Most of the ones that have come through my shop are painted under the framework....

[Mike Brady]

What is a NOS plane? I never heard that expression before. NOS mean "new old stock" which is applied to vintage tools that were never used and probably are still in the original box. Carl had several transitional planes and some scrub planes that had the yellowish finish I described. When he saw the plane pictured above, he criticized my restoring of it to new condition. Collectors hate that because it tends to confuse the less knowledgeable buyer, and NOS tools bring high prices on the resale market. He had NOS saws that were $250. but the same saw, very lightly used would be worth a hundred. The plane pictured brought a return higher than an average scrub would have.

The poster's question was regarding the original finish on a transitional plane. Its safe to say it wasn't Tru Oil.