I went down to my Dad’s farm this past weekend and found this old hand plane. It was covered in rust and cobwebs but I thought I might take it home and see if I could salvage it. The topic of hand planes on DA lately has inspired me to give it a try.
I sprayed the bottom of the plane with Rust Free (with a little help from steel wool it can do wonders at removing rust from steel surfaces). Then I took it apart and sharpened the blade. After putting it all back together, I tested it out on a piece of poplar. It was a little tricky getting the depth of the blade set just right but once I did it seemed to be working as good as new!
Dave Says:
March 5th, 2007 at 10:12 pmVisit Dave
Did you flatten the bottom? You can do so with some sandpaper on a flat surface. I’ve been using my table saw’s cast iron surface. You can start with something pretty rough to make things level quickly, and go up to 220 or so.
Apologies for not posting more; there are some top secret projects going on at DA’s Portland office. Details soon. I am covered in sawdust as I write this, though.