Stanley #118 block plane
Jack Guzman from Maine
>I know,it's a crude piece of pressed steel. I picked one up a year or so ago. It was a little rough.I cleaned it up and sharpened the iron then put it on a shelf. It was a curiosity.
I'm a carpenter and I work mostly fixing things in old houses. My tool kit is extremely varied and it resides in the back of my truck in buckets and boxes. Rust is a hazard as is rough use due to rattling around in a moving vehicle so I never bring good planes ,chisels,saws,etc. to my jobs. I have lots of plastic handled stanley and buck bros chisels. Plastic handled fast cut saws,and a red and blue stanley basic block plane that I paid $9 for at the hardware store.I use it to plane door bottoms to fit and in other operations where a rough cut won't matter much.Knocking the corner off a 2x4 for example.
One day I decided to take the 118 with and see if it was useful. The old blue and red got neglected.It rusted up in the bottom of a bucket. I've been using the 118 almost every day now. It is a very handy tool for what I do. Just recently I saw an almost new 118 on ebay so naturally I had to have it.
Now I'm thinking of building a wooden tote so I can safely carry some decent hand tools to the job.I much prefer mortising hinges with a nice chisel.The 118 may be crude for woodworking but it is a bridge between that world and the kind of rough work that I have been doing.
Crackerjack