Some restored hand planes
Dominic Greco in Richboro PA
>Hi Everyone,
I finally finished restoring a bunch of handplanes and decided it was time to post some pictures.
The first one is a Union No7. Here is a "before" picture.
The body was bead blasted and Re-Japaned with high solids black paint. The original lever cap was missing so I bought a new one from Stanley. The blade and chip breaker had some pitting due to rust and were retired. A new LV blade and Stanley Chip Breaker were added. The tote and knob were stripped, cleaned, re-stained with rosewood stain, and given several coats of wipe on Poly. The sole was flattened and polished to the mirror finish you see now.
The second one is a Wooden Union Warranted Jack Plane with a Butcher Iron.
I got this for $5 at a yard sale. I cleaned and sharpened the iron, stripped and cleaned the body, and made a new tote out of cherry. I still need to fine tune the wedge since I have been told that this is the most likely cuplrit for chips clogging in the mouth area.
The English Stanley Bailey 5C looked a lot worse than it really was when I got it.
The sole was in nice shape when I bought it. All it needed was to be cleaned and fettled a bit. I was also informed that since this was a "newer" Stanley that it would not be fit for anything other than tossing at an unruly relative! After tuning it up and putting newly sharpened blade in, I'll have to say that I disagree. It's actually quite nice to use and produces whisper thin shavings. I can tell that this will become one of my "users".
The No4 was one of my original hand planes and was purchased at a yard sale for $10. I don't have a before picture of this one or the Defiant No3 that I purchased from a former co-worker. Both planes were cleaned, had their soles flattened, chip breakers turned up, and blades sharpened.
Just to give these planes a work out, I decided to flatten a 6" wide piece rough sawn 4/4 cherry. I was very impressed with the way that the No7 and No 5 handled. The No4 smoother worked quite well, but the Defiant No3 needs some tweaking. I think it was due to the frog being set for too fine of cut. When I backed off the blade it was able to take really super thin cuts.
That's about it. I have several other planes waiting in the wings to be restored. But they may have to wait a while. I'm bushed! :>)
See ya around,
Dominic
