He Twisted My Arm!

[Jim Koepke]

Had an appointment in town today. Did a little shopping on the way home and decided to stop at one of my favorite rust hunting shops. They haven't had much lately, but things are always changing.

There was a large bin with a lot of unmarked items. One was a 6" clamp for $10, pass, there are a few of those already in the shop. He said the price tag likely fell off as this was a bunch of stuff he hastily cleaned up from his last flea market. There was a taper pin for $2 that I decided would be good for use in draw boring.

There was a Stanley #71 router complete with a wooden case with a clear plastic top. It was priced at $125. Mike said he could come down on the price if I wanted it. I explained I already had one though it was the Sargent model. He said he had a few things that weren't out yet and took me to the overflow closet. He had a pair of Stanley Side Rabbet planes that were pre-depth stop. One had a patent date. Again, I don't really need more than one pair and mine have depth stops. Then he pulled out a tattered box with a Stanley #271 Small Router. It even had an extra blade ground down to 1/8". I have been looking for one of these forever. Having given up on finding one I purchased the Veritas Miniature & Medium Router Planes.

Then he hit me where it hurt. He said he could let me have all three for $75 and throw in the taper pin.

Early Side Rabbets, #271 Router & Taper Pin.jpg

I didn't even bother to haggle, Mike has given me some good deals over the years. Pretty clean to boot.

jtk

[Rob Luter]

I would have taken that deal too. I'm on the hunt for a small router plane. Hoping Santa might being me a Veritas Medium as I have the large and a full complement of cutters. I used to have a Sweetheart era #98 and never once used it. They're still neat little tools that do what nothing else will.

[Jim Koepke]

My #98 & #99 have come in handy often. If you do a lot of shelf work or boxes and need to adjust the slot, nothing does it better.

My brother sent me a box with some plane blades he found in some of the boxed lots he buys. He also sent Candy some pieces of petrified wood. She is a rock hound. He also sent me a nice stuby Phillips screwdriver:

Stanley Screwdriver #2711.jpg

The marks you might see on the shaft in the photo is the patent information, "Phillips patent 2046837 & 2045840." Being curious the patents were looked up.

> https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNu...&docid=2046837
> https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNu...&docid=2046840

This got me to wonder so patents from 2046836 through 2046841 were also looked up. -38 & 39 were interesting:

Patent -38 & -39.jpg

interesting images of screw head development.

FWIW, Patent 2046836 was for a mechanical pencil and Patent 2046841 was a process for the manufacturing of phosphates.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

I had some time to spend in the shop today to tune up a few wooden round planes:

Tuned Up Round Plane.jpg

Took a little time to get the blades to better match the sole. It is pleasing to see an even shaving coming out of a molding plane like this.

It was most likely seeing a set of hollows & Rounds on Patrick Leach’s Tools for Sale list this morning that got me thinking about hollows & rounds today. I so wanted to see if Candy would let me spend $400 on a nice set of 25 planes. (that I don’t really need, but what has that got to do with it?) There were even some of the odd sizes in the set. A half set of even sizes is only 18 planes.

After a bit of fettling three of four rounds it occurred to me there was a pair of side rabbets that needed some clean up and sharpening.

The #98 had already been sharpened and was fairly clean. The #99 had a few rust spots on the back side, mostly on the toe piece. This was lifting the sole so the blade wasn’t making contact with the work as it should.

Another problem was found:

Stanley #99 With Blade Below Skate.jpg

A line was drawn on a piece of scrap to show the blade being below the skate. This pair of side rabbets was made before Stanley added depth stops. A blade below the skate when working something like a drawer side can scribe the bottom of a slot and weaken the structure. This is not an uncommon occurrence, at least on Stanley side rabbet planes. I have seen it on the #79 and the #98, #99 pairs.

Here is an example of the blade cutting below the skate:

Damage Caused by Extened Blade #99.jpg

This was done on a piece of scrap.

A very careful touch on my Power Sharpening System took care of the errant point on the blade:

After the Trim #99 Blade.jpg

Another problem the blade had was being sharpened unevenly. It wouldn’t cut across the full width at a lighter setting. This was also taken up on the Power Sharpener.

Testing was again done on a piece of scrap. This same piece was used for testing round planes so there was a narrow flat spot along the sides:

On the Edge Testing #99.jpg

The plane was moved sideways as it was cutting to insure it was cutting across the full edge width of the blade.

The #99 was the only one that had rust to clean off. A little sanding with a 220 abrasive sheet cleaned it up real fast:

Finished Fettle on Side Rabbets - #98 & #99.jpg

The #99 is on the left.

If my grandson is still interested in woodworking he may end up with this pair of side rabbets. These and a book or two would make a good Christmas gift.

jtk