Opinions Needed -- Should I Paint It, Japan It, Or What?

[Tom LaRussa]

This is a Craftsman iteration of what is I think the Sargent version of the standard, i.e., normal 20 degree bedding angle, adjustable-mouthed block plane. (The adjustment thingie for the mouth piece looks like the ones used on Sargent planes I've seen at the Martin J. Donnelly auction site. http://www.mjdtools.com/index.html )

Whoever made it, it's a nice little plane, and as the first pic shows, it takes nice fluffy shavings.

Strange thing is, when I received this one the lever cap still retained almost off of its plating, but the sole had almost no color left. (I don't say Japan, because what little is left is battleship gray.)

I have two of these, so it's possible that I mixed up the lever caps at some point, but they have identical markings on them so it's impossible to know.

I flattened the sole, (which had some pitting right in front of the mouth), stripped off what was left of the old color, took the rust off the rest of it, polished up the hardware, and scary-sharped the blade.

Now I just need to decide what to do about body color.

Which of the following options would you recommend for this plane?

Should I:

[1] Leave it as is? (Quickest and cheapest way to go.)

[2] Japan it? (Most time consuming, and thus most expensive.)

[3] Paint it black with appliance paint? (Pretty quick & very cheap.)

[4] Paint it some other color? (Ditto.)

[Wendell Wilkerson]

My vote is leave it. It looks good to me the way it is.

Wendell

[Bob Smalser]

I'd phosphate blue it for rust resistance.



OxphoBlue - Brownells.com

[Chris Thompson]

I agree with both Bob and Wendell. I'd not paint/japan it at all, I think it looks good, thought bluing it as Bob says is probably a good idea.

[Tom LaRussa]

Thanks everybody for your opinions.

It never did get finished, 'cuz somebody made me an offer I couldn't refuse and I sold it.

Oops.