Old Plane, new life

[Kenneth George]

Hello everyone, I thought I would share with you my most recent project. A couple of weekends ago my wife and I were in San Antonio Texas to watch one of my nephews get an award. While there we took an opportunity to go to all the different antique stores in the area as the wife really enjoys those kinds of places. At the very last one we went to the wife walked up to me holding an old plane she had come across. It was a Stanley #5 and was kind of rough but all parts seemed to be with it. The Japanning was in very poor shape and the handle was broken but since I did not have a #5 I thought this might be a fun project so I ended up buying it for $30.

http://www.theturnersshop.com/images/No5/finished/No5.jpg

Now I know real hand tool purist may not appreciate what I have done but I want to use the tool in my shop and really don’t care much about the collector value or what not. As I said the handle was broken and the knob was cracked all the way through. I had considered buying replacements but then changed my mind and decided to make my own. The default handles don’t really fit my hand all that well as I have long fingers so I wanted the handle to be a bit wider parallel to the plane. I could have used Rosewood but I am pretty allergic to it so I choose Canary Wood which I think will work fine. With that I turned a new knob and carved and shaped a new handle. I removed the rust with electrolyses and tuned the plane up. I replaced the blade and the chip breaker with new Hock’s as the old ones were pretty much ruined. I cleaned and polished everything else and have only one part to acquire and that is the front handle screw as it was replaced with a hex head bolt by the previous owner but that is on its way to me. In usage the plane produces almost transparent ribbons of shavings.

http://www.theturnersshop.com/images/No5/finished/No5Finished.jpg

It works pretty good I think and I am happy with the end results so I thought I would share it with you guys. Thanks for having a look at my project.

Ken

[Jim DeLaney]

Looks great. Ought to make a fine user.

The canary wood knob & tote are certainly distinctive. Might take a little 'getting used to' for me, at least, but they're certainly well done.

Enjoy your new toyl.

[Geoff Irvine]

G'day Kenneth,
I think you've done a fantastic job on that plane. Well done! Hope it brings you lots of pleasure.
Regards,
Geoff Irvine.

[Jim Becker]

Beautiful job, Kenneth!!

[Jeff Horton]

I guess I am one of the "old tool guys" you referred to. ;) But I see nothing wrong with what you did. Thats a not a rare plane and there is not a real collectors value on those so why not? I think you did a good job. You took a pretty useless looking plane and turned it into something you will use. I think that is great and looks great!

Now if you did that to a #112 I would probably feel different! :D

[Tim Leo]

You took that used up old worn out plane and you made it useful again. Good job. How did you get that lever cap so shiny? Did you have it replated?

[Terry Bigelow]

Howdy folks! I'm new here. I have to say that is quite nice work indeed. I too "refinish" old stanleys. I know some say it's wrong, but I'd rather put it to work than put it on a shelf!

[Deirdre Saoirse Moen]

Hey, I think it's pretty darn neat. If you got some other ones in bad shape, you could turn knobs and make totes out of different woods -- and tell which they were just by color. :)

I'm with Terry -- I'd rather put it to work than put it on a shelf (or discard it, that being the other extreme).

[Gary Herrmann]

The cool thing about the handle and tote is that if you put that #5 on a bench with a bunch of others, you'll be able to tell which one is yours from all the way across the shop. Nice job.

[Kenneth George]

Well Jeff we are safe then since I don’t have a 112 but I do have the Lie Nielsen copy of it and I do have an Old Stanley #12 Veneer Scraper that is in almost perfect original condition and I use it all the time on my veneers.

Tim, actually the lever cap was one of the easier pieces on the project. Once the rust was removed I sanded it starting with 600 grit and moved up. I then buffed it with a high speed buffer with White Diamond rouge first with a sewn wheel and then with a soft wheel. I could have taken it to a mirror shine but I thought it looked better satin. I think I spent more time painting the red background on the Stanley Logo!

It is very satisfying though when you first use this plane and wispy little shavings are produced and the planed surface feels smooth as glass.

Thanks everyone for the nice comments.

[Alan Turner]

Nice work. Planes are to be used. And, corrugated bottoms are my personal favorite.

[jonathan snyder]

Kennith,

I like it, it is quite distinctive. I think if you are going to use it, you might as well make it look nice.

You say you used electrolyses to remove the rust. Can you please elaborate? I am not familiar with that term. Is that something any joe schmo can do? I have a couple of old users, I would love to have look like that.

Thanks for sharing

Jonathan

[Kenneth George]

Jonathan, I kind of have a habit of taking pictures and posting projects like this on my site. I don it mainly because of all the encouraging emails I seem to get all the time. Anyhow if you would like to see how mine came about I just uploaded it to my site.

http://www.theturnersshop.com/woodwork/no5/No5_1.html

A caveat or two, this is my first experience with a lot of processes and techniques used in this plane restoration so not all of them may be considered the “Right” way to do things. They may not even be considered a good way to do things but hey, they worked for me!

Ken

[Ken Werner]

Hi Ken,
I went to your site and enjoyed reading the tale of your #5. Nice work. The plane looks great. I have a half way done tote in cherry that I stopped working on because I was afraid of drilling those holes. You've shown the way. Thanks.
another Ken

[Steve Clardy]

Very nice resto

[James Mittlefehldt]

I have one question what did you do with the water from the electrolyses (sp) proceedure that stuff looks like toxic waste.

I have an Ohio tool no. 07C and it was a rust bucket when I got it, but all i did was scrape and wipe it with steel wool and sandpaper, then coat it with a gloss black rust paint, not the purist approach to be sure but it made the tool usable.

[jonathan snyder]

Kenneth,

I checked out your web site. Nice job of documentation!

Thanks
Jonathan

[Dave Anderson NH]

The residue from electrolysis is not toxic. All you have is a solution of washing soda in water laden with rust. It's disposable down the toilet or the drain.

[Zahid Naqvi]

Ken, wonderful job on the plane and documentation. I looked around your site, you are a skilled craftsman my friend.

[Terry Beadle]

What a great bit of work! The link to the process you went through was really interesting. Especially the part on electrolosis and using a battery charger. Good choices on the Hock blade and chip breaker. I was given a Hock blade by my brother Steve and it really works great. Thanks very much for entering in this post. Really! Good job!