# Gifts from my dad - a whole drawer full of hand tools



## adamclyde (Feb 28, 2013)

Christmas came really early this year. I have been building out my shop since buying a new house and told my dad I'm interested in learning more about how to really use hand tools. So yesterday, he showed up at my house with a drawer full of tools I'd never seen - tools he had from when he was an apprentice cabinet maker prior to becoming an accountant. He said the last time any of them were used would have been 1964, and even at that time, most of these were quite old.




























As you can see in the pictures, there are some neat ones here, though in need of some TLC. I am really new to hand tools, so would love some thoughts on a few of these. As far as I can tell, here is what I have (going roughly clockwise in that top picture, starting at the top):


*Stanley #7 Jointer plane* (bailey imprint at the front; I failed to write down the pat number)
*Stanley #75 Bull Nose plane* (no number I could find, but searching through this site yielded this which looks just like it)
*Stanley #71 Router plane*. I think it came with multiple blade/iron widths, but I only one size of blade. I'm not sure how old this guy is…
*Stanley #58 spokeshave*. Interestingly, there is no #58 on the supertool site. 
*Stanley #78 Rabbet plane* It didn't have a guide fence but looked like it originally came with one or could have as an add on. Annoyingly in this picture the wooden cove plane is covering up the handle. 
*Stanley #80 spokeshave/scraper*. It's missing an iron.
(now moving to the bottom row, still clockwise, right to left)
*Old wooden cove plane*
*Old wooden smoothing plane*, I think?
*Old wooden scrub plane*? (this is the one at the bottom left… it has a curved cutting iron, like a scrub plane, so I assume that's what it is).

The cool thing is, those three wooden planes were given to my dad when he finished his apprenticeship in the 50s by an old Jewish European immigrant who came to California following WWII, after surviving the holocaust. I have no idea of the age of the planes however.

Except in the case of the jointer plane, I'm not sure how much regular use these are going to get in the shop, but I can't wait to refurbish each as best I can to try and get them back into good working order.

Not a bad start to my hand tool collection, eh?


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## Tugboater78 (May 26, 2012)

Very nice start!


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## DonBroussard (Mar 27, 2012)

The tools themselves are wonderful, but the fact that they came with history and stories make them even more wonderful. Great job identifying the tools, too.


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## adamclyde (Feb 28, 2013)

Thanks, Dan/tugboater. Now that they are identified, I just need to figure out how the heck to use most of them.


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## smokie (Dec 29, 2012)

Wow! Very nice Adam. Damned fine start I'd say.


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## Tim457 (Jan 11, 2013)

Patrick's blood and gore (supertool.com) doesn't cover spokeshaves at all I think so that's why you didn't see it there. I don't know any good spokeshave sites off the top of my head but you can google for more on them. It does have a lot of good info on your 78 though about the missing fence, etc. The one you're thinking is a smoothing plane probably is, it looks fairly short. The other one could be a scrub I guess, it depends on how curved the iron is. A lot of people like these horned wooden planes. If I recall they are a German or at least continental European style.

Only you can say which one you'd like to start learning about. It's a great bunch to start with indeed. If you don't already have a good sharpening setup get a set of good stones or go with the scary sharp method for now even though it will cost more in the long run. Sharpen up the tool you want to get started using, and figure out how to use it. Feel free to ask more details here on each one as you use them. First thing I would do is clean the metal parts of all the tools lightly with some mineral spirits then wipe them down with a lightly oiled rag if there isn't any rust or pick a rust removal method if there is. Always want to get rust off and oil them to prevent more rust.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

definitely a great starter set.


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## 33706 (Mar 5, 2008)

Wow, a #58 spokeshave? Unheard of! Great starter set, for sure! Add a good #4, and you'll be good to go!


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

although I never will repute a reason to buy another plane Poopie, that German smoother will server just fine. There is a jack missing however. The set Goes from scrub straight to jointer or smoother.


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## 33706 (Mar 5, 2008)

Yep true, enough, Don! I gotta say, those horned European planes leave a bit to be desired, or maybe I'm just not getting it right. I've got about 8 of them, only the one with a severely convex cutter sees much action. I just got a 'Nooitgetadt' Euro smoother, I think I like it more each time I use it, but still I like to follow up with US iron.










*My euro horny planes…*


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Ive got an Ulmia, and it works great. So I guess it depends. I bought mine for the sole purpose of flipping it, but it worked so well I kept it.


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## DocBailey (Dec 9, 2011)

That 58 spokeshave is apparently part of the lightweight line-up for use in manual training schools.
From the 1934 Stanley catalog:


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## sikrap (Mar 15, 2009)

Excellent start!!! The only thing there I wouldn't spend much time with is the 75. The #7 looks to be in pretty good shape. The 71 did come with 3 cutters. You can buy nice replacements for sizes you want from Lee Valley. The 78 looks to be missing the fence and the depth stop, but about 80% of the ones I come across are missing those too, so I wouldn't lose any sleep over them. As for the #80 scraper, its easy enough to make your own blades fro that. Just find an old hand saw made with spring steel at a garage sale for $1 and cut 4 or 5 out of the plate.


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## adamclyde (Feb 28, 2013)

wow guys, thanks for all this great info! And DocBailey, thanks for sharing that. Interesting that it was mostly used for training. I wonder if my dad picked it up when he was going to school.

poopiekat, funny enough, I actually just picked up a stanley #4 a few weeks ago. All I need now is a good jack plane, as others have noted. The one I think is a scrub plane has a dramatically chamfered edge. As in, like a semi circle, so it must be a scrub plane.


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## Tim457 (Jan 11, 2013)

If you buy into Paul Seller's system he recommends using a #4 for just about everything. So it may not hurt to hold off buying another plane if you want to wait until you get a chance to use your new toys.


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