A Welcome Find
Tom MacGregor
>My Grandfather was a jack-of-all-trades in Warren, Pennsylvania. At various times he worked as a photographer, bicycle repairman, beekeeper, carpenter, stonemason and a variety of other trades. I was two years old when he died in 1954. My Grandmother lived to the age of 101 in 1980. The family kept everything we wanted from the estate, but handtools were not yet a passion of mine and for years I have regretted the fact that I hadn�t acquired at least one of the planes that I knew Grandpa must have owned.
My parents are now in their 80�s and on a recent trip back home my sister was asked to go through some boxes that had been packed in the garage for decades. Today she presented me with a Stanley #4-1/2 Type 13 Sweetheart that had been salvaged from my Grandfather�s shop and forgotten. It�s going to need a good cleaning but it�s all there with intact wood, 95% japan and a good length iron. It�s going to be a truly wonderful experience to make the first shavings that this plane has taken in over a half century since it was last in his hands.
