My woodworking hand tools are mostly vintage and all have required some rehab but I've tried to buy tools that did not require too much work. New tools are either expensive or poor quality and I'm both cheap and exacting. I rehab tools because I want a good quality tools but I do not want to pay the price of new premium tools. It's not a hobby for me. I enjoy the result but I'm ambivalent toward the process of rehabbing tools. Whereas with woodworking, I enjoy the process and the result is secondary. Unsurprisingly, the more tools I rehab, the more I enjoy the process.
I've often bough vintage tools that only required minimal effort to get them in working shape. My woodworking time is limited so it's worth it to me to trade a little more cash for a little more time woodworking.
I think this forum is a great equalizer. When I bought my first hand plane, I'd never heard of SMC or the Neanderthal forum. I'm sure I would have had much more success if I could have explained what I was trying to do and asked some questions. That's essentially all I've done this time and I'm making strides every week.
-- Dan Rode
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle