Hi Gang!
Well here it is! Another in a series of Bedrock restorations!
I got this Bedrock 608C off of Ebay some time last summer for the princely sum of $80 (GLOAT!). The tote and knob were in pretty nice condition and the japaning looked reasonably intact. The iron was just about full length and looked to have never been honed! It was sort of tarnished on the outside (which was not much of a problem) but the frog, chip breaker, and iron were pretty gummed up with rust and what looked and smelled like 100 year old pine chips.
Before:
I soaked the iron parts in Evaporust (which by the way was the same bottles I used on my last two planes and is now pretty much spent) and then wire brushed all the parts. It wasn't until I started cleaning the iron that I got a couple of surprises. As I was wire brushing the sides I found the old owner's initials stamped cleanly on both sides. As I was cleaning the iron I also found the Sweetheart mark!
After:
The very light line along the sides was the result of soaking in Evaporust and not having it totally submerged. I could have sanded it out but figured that it really didn't bother me enough and the sides looks good just as they are.
Once I ground the primary bevel and honed the iron, I then tuned up the chip breaker and took this monster for a test run on some rough sawn Walnut. I fully expected this to be one of those planes that you use only when you need the mass and length of a big jointer. I thought it would be too heavy to use all the time. However, the ease that this plane went through that walnut was nothing less than jaw dropping (for me at least). And the shaving I was able to get was,...well you take a look!
Actually I shouldn't have been so surprised. I had a similar experience when I tuned up my Bedrock 606. All in all this was one of my favorite refurb projects and really showed me what a nicely tuned Bedrock could do. Whenever practical, this'll be my go to jointer!
Thanks for viewing!
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