Stanley #4 Type 9 or 10 - Plane Restoration - Part 1

Good luck. It looks like you have your work cut out for you.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Good luck – looks like it’s going to be a lot of work – but if you can pull it off, it will be worth the effort.

-- Bill - "Suit yourself and let the rest be pleased." http://www.cajunpen.com/

I can see that you love a challenge- especially so since you are working on so many projects concurrently. I just recently did some work on a Stanley #5 and #8 that belonged to my father but had not seen any use in at least 40 years.

All I did was take the rust off and replaced the plane irons and chip breakers with Hock replacements and they perfrom beautifully. Now if only I could improve the operator end of the process. But that comes with practice I suppose.

Good luck on the restoration. Post some pictures on your progress.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this goes. I love old tools, and restoring old tools as well.

From what I can tell, it looks like the only thing you’ll have a problem doing with this plane is shooting, but most use a #5, #6, or #7 for that. Hopefully though, it will function well for you at all other operations!

-- "Give me your poor tools, your tired steel, your huddled masses of rust." Yep, I ripped off the Statue of Liberty. That's how I roll!

Good luck, Theres nothing like restoring life

-- Mike, Bruce Mississippi = Jack of many trades master of none

Other than the broken piece, this looks very doable. I recently restored a Stanley Bailey #4 that I bought on EBay. It was in a little better shape than this one. I wrote about it on my blog The is some info there on a product to remove the rust very effectively that you may be interested in. Good luck on the project!

-- Mark, Webster New York, Visit my website at http://thecraftsmanspath.com

Thanks Mark, I read your blog and ran down to the AZ yesterday and bought that product works like a charm. My next big hurtle is getting the left over paint off of everything…..

-- //FC - Round Rock, TX - "Experience is what you get just after you need it"

Save the tote and send it to me! I would repair and refinish it. It’s one of the old profiles which puts the plane at pre type 9 maybe earlier judging by the lack of the frog advancing mechanism. Hope this helps.

Personally, I’d plant the broken body in the garden beneath my hydrangeas. The iron keeps their color up. You could find a replacement body at a tool swap meet, flea market or on eBay. Or you could go retail and get one promptly from an antique tool dealer. Whatever you do just look for a match via vintage; patent dates, et al.

Your gramps would be proud.

always,
J.C.

-- "Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein