Project Information
After patiently watching craigslist for the past few months, I found this 30's era stanley #7b jointer plane for $30. It was in decent shape, but the handle was broken, and worn out. I decided purists be damned, so I cleaned up the plane, repainted it, and polished all of the hardware.
The handles are curly bubinga and tiger maple. Since the original rear handle cracked in half, i opted to alternate the grain of the maple just as if it were plywood to give it strength. I don't have a lathe, so I had to get creative when I made the front handle. I roughed it out on the bandsaw, then chucked it in the drillpress, and sanded away till I had the desired shape. The handles were finished with 2 coats of thinned amber shellac, followed by 3 coats of laquer.
Let me say that this badboy really plows through wood effortlessly due to its heft(it weighs just over 8 pounds!). This plane is 22" long with a 2 3/8" blade.
The handles are curly bubinga and tiger maple. Since the original rear handle cracked in half, i opted to alternate the grain of the maple just as if it were plywood to give it strength. I don't have a lathe, so I had to get creative when I made the front handle. I roughed it out on the bandsaw, then chucked it in the drillpress, and sanded away till I had the desired shape. The handles were finished with 2 coats of thinned amber shellac, followed by 3 coats of laquer.
Let me say that this badboy really plows through wood effortlessly due to its heft(it weighs just over 8 pounds!). This plane is 22" long with a 2 3/8" blade.