So tonight I can't sleep and I've been lurking around the internet and happened on a site for obsessive tool junkies here in the UK. In particular the article I read was regarding how to age wood, especially for tools… It was quite enlightening, especially now in that there are some tell tale signs that indicate ageing has been tried… The technique employed in the article involved fairly high heat being applied to the part to accelerate the ageing process, but the by product of this technique often leaves scorch marks in the wood… When that is retrospectively applied to the numerous tools I've viewed on ebay and always wondered about what looks like scorching (as if the plane were rescued from a fire) on many of the planes I've been interested it makes me wonder if they have been doctored now.

Certainly has me thinking