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Rich Luczak
06-23-2008, 6:20 AM
Hi,

New to the forum. I’ve been very lucky in a few old tools recently. I have several Baileys and a couple of Bedrocks, saw set and vise, a very old miter box w/ a Disston saw and a bunch of chisels. Pretty much all the planes came from the same guy. They were so bad that literally the first step in getting them cleaned up was scraping off the insect eggs.

I have two stuck adjustors; both froze to the screw and out of the plane. I’ve been spraying them w/ PB Blaster, setting them up in a socket and putting a bit of the PBB and letting’ it set. What is the best way to grip the screw w/o ruining it? Will heat help? Also, is there a supplier of these parts? I have another plane that needs one.

I tried Envirorust on the tools and am happy w/ the results, but I noticed that the business end of cutters is much darker that the rest of the steel when it is removed from the Envirorust I’m guessing that this indicates that there are two types of steel, and the black stuff is carbon. Am I correct?

Jim Koepke
06-23-2008, 7:20 PM
Not really sure what parts you are talking about.

Pictures always help.

For sources of parts, look at the thread on the 220 block plane, link below. It has a good list of sources.

jim

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=86894

Stephen Shepherd
06-23-2008, 8:43 PM
Rich,

You probably have laid steel blades, a thin veneer of steel forge welded to wrought iron. The reason being that the steel can be hardened harder than if it were made of solid steel (My Opinion Only*). Others say the steel is put on thin for economy, I don't buy that, the labor of laminating the blade would exceed the savings*.

Stephen

Jim Koepke
06-24-2008, 2:55 AM
Rich,

You probably have laid steel blades, a thin veneer of steel forge welded to wrought iron. The reason being that the steel can be hardened harder than if it were made of solid steel (My Opinion Only*). Others say the steel is put on thin for economy, I don't buy that, the labor of laminating the blade would exceed the savings*.

Stephen

At todays wages versus metallurgy, yes. 1947 is the date I read for Stanley ending the laminated blades.

In 1900 when a few dollars a day was a good wage, it may have been quite a savings to slam a nickels worth of steel onto a half-penny worth of carrier steel.

jtk

Stephen Shepherd
06-24-2008, 7:08 AM
Jim,

Are the prices you quoted for steel (5 cents) and 'carrier steel' (half cent) from the time period and what is your source?

Stephen

Jim Koepke
06-24-2008, 12:44 PM
Jim,

Are the prices you quoted for steel (5 cents) and 'carrier steel' (half cent) from the time period and what is your source?

Stephen

Just guesses, but if the material to labor cost is such, then laminations would make sense.

My guess is based on the prices I have seen for plane blades in old catalogs. Around 1900 a 2" blade sold in the range of 25¢.

It is the same today. If materials are cheap and labor is high, then things are done one way. If materials are costly and labor is cheap, then industry will adjust to keep the total cost of manufacturing as low as possible.

jim