What wood? Would you trim this back? What finish?

[Don Morris]

I inherited several handplanes from my Father-in-law, a Swedish Cabinet maker. Great person and the source of my interest in woodworking. I'm renovating a Bailey #3 and the photos are of the handle after the thick varnish was removed. I must say removing the varnish and getting the dings smoothed and the handle to this point took more aggressive work with sandpaper than any other piece of wood I can remember. This wood is hard and the grain goes every which way. I'm just not sure what wood it is. Would like more experienced eyes to give an opinion. The front knob was replaced with a hard, high polish, plastic. The rear fit of the handle at the base, IMHO, isn't very good. The handle extends out over the edge of the base. Considering the hardness of the wood, I'm not surprised they stopped when it was close and said that's good enough. However, I'm inclined to try to get it a little closer to a better fit. Would you? Then what finish. I love natural wood finishes such as just Watco Oil, but the wild grain pattern on this makes me a little apprehensive that would look good. Again, more experienced opinions are sought. I'm always thankful for any constructive ideas and input. V/r Don M


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[Jim Koepke]

Don,

Stanley used rosewood for many years making their handles. During WW II they switched to "hardwood" painted black. After the war they did return to rosewood and then back to hardwoods with various amounts of coating with various amounts of coloring.

Do you know when your planes were made?

The flatish sides make it appear to be a late 1950s or newer model.

For rosewood, my preference is to smooth them as much as possible with fine abrasive paper then coat them with an oil and wax furniture polish.

jtk

[lowell holmes]

Or you could order one.

http://www.hardwarecitytools.com/products.html

[bridger berdel]

Those "hardwood" totes are something quite a bit more porous than rosewood. Might be beech, or birch, or whatever stanley could get cheap at the time.

I do remember someone posting somewhere a recipe for staining them to be a good match for rosewood. I recall it involving two rounds of stains, seems like one was a brown and the other was purple. In any case I'd finish off with a penetrating resin finish, like danish oil or thinned oil base varnish.