Project Information
i occasionally do big table tops and needed a plane big enough to flatten them, so i was looking for a #6,7 or 8. the price of good quality new planes and nice old planes were both way out of my reach. after consulting with the lumberjock experts i settled on some lesser know (not the collector hot bailey and stanley planes) names. the guys gave me a list of manufacturers that i should be able to get in my budget. i found a 60 some year old craftsman plane with good solid castings, but had broken handles and was pretty rusty and pitted from sitting in a barn, ... $20, just my price. the farmer told me he watched his father build the house and woodwork in it with this plane, and thought his dad bought it new as a young man. he never used it, but it worked real nice for his dad.
cleaned up all the wrought and cast metal/brass parts, but just couldn't bring myself to go old school black with rosewood handles. my craftsman is not a "collector", she's a user. so i decided to give her a personality with a little bit of whimsy. my "blonde" has maple handles with a a rubbed poly/linsead oil finish and a hot red enamel painted body. castings were wiped with a phosphate conversion coating to seal the rust pits. the tote was easy enough to make, but since i don't have a lathe, the knob was pretty tough to get round. roughed out a cylinder on the band saw and finished it with knife, rotary rasp, and sanded on the drill press. a good site for a tote pattern is : http://www.leevalley.com/html/16j4010k.pdf
put her back together without re-sharpening and did a test cut to see how bad the blade was, and to my surprise she effortlessly produced ribbon thin shavings in some old oak from the sawmill.
cleaned up all the wrought and cast metal/brass parts, but just couldn't bring myself to go old school black with rosewood handles. my craftsman is not a "collector", she's a user. so i decided to give her a personality with a little bit of whimsy. my "blonde" has maple handles with a a rubbed poly/linsead oil finish and a hot red enamel painted body. castings were wiped with a phosphate conversion coating to seal the rust pits. the tote was easy enough to make, but since i don't have a lathe, the knob was pretty tough to get round. roughed out a cylinder on the band saw and finished it with knife, rotary rasp, and sanded on the drill press. a good site for a tote pattern is : http://www.leevalley.com/html/16j4010k.pdf
put her back together without re-sharpening and did a test cut to see how bad the blade was, and to my surprise she effortlessly produced ribbon thin shavings in some old oak from the sawmill.