Keen Kutter KK8 Tote

[John Glendening]

I bought a rust bucket KK8 recently. The sole is not bad, mostly surface rust, so I don't think it'll be problem. The big problem is the tote. the one that came with the plane was not good, so I took it off. Lo and behold, the bolt for the tote was bent - severely. Obviously the tote had been replaced with something random and a previous owner just "adjusted" the bolt. When screwing the good end of the bolt and lining up a new tote, that new tote has to lean way back. I'm thinking the KK8 tote is something non-standard - at least to the rest of the world.

I printed out the Lee Valley tote pattern for #5 and up Stanley planes. It doesn't seem to line up with the KK8, either. I'm pretty sure I could cut and fit a piece of wood with a plan, but anything for a KK8 seems to be really rare, so where can I find a plan for a KK8 tote?

Thanks in advance - for any advice!!

[Mark Stutz]

Keen Kutter was the "house brand" of Simmons Hdwe, later Shapleigh Hdwe, and were made under contract by the major manufacturers. It's puzzling to me why it wouldn't work. The K series are essentially the same as round sided bedrocks, but the KK were made by various makers as far as I know.

[John Glendening]

Correct - the KK's were made by Ohio Tool, Sargent, and maybe some others for E.C.Simmons and are (supposed to be) regular Bailey-style planes. Perhaps the tote mount got munged up also and so perhaps the bolt doesn't sit straight - need to look into that. Thanks for the reply.

[John Glendening]

I straightened out the bolt and it fits or at least looks better. But, I wouldn't necessarily trust the metal for much anymore. I was able to try my KK5 tote on the KK8 and discovered some interesting things about the #5 plane. The tote sort of fit with the straightened bolt on the #8, but the lean is bit different and the toe didn't line up with the KK8 tote mount - I kind of expected that. I also found that with a straight bolt the extra tote that I had on hand that hasn't yet been fit to anything actually wanted to work. The hole just needs a bit of hogging out with a 5/8" forstner bit and it should drop in.

The KK8 was roached to begin with, but the Evaporust bath cleaned up most of the rust. Looks like the sole and sides can be flattened pretty well. Some pitting but not in any critical spots. It came with some plane-appropriate parts, none of witch were useful for a #8 jointer, but the price was right so I'm just going to restore to user level. I found a lever cap that was actually for a #8 (as opposed to the #6 or #7 cap that came with it), but am still looking for a decent iron and cap iron. I may just go with something new.

The last interesting thing I found was that the tote on KK5 broke - I knew that and tried to repair it, but the rosewood was imply too oily. So I found a basically "NOS" tote (at least that's what the seller described it as). It came today and is absolutely beautiful. I'll tune it to the KK8 since the toe screw hole on this new one lines up perfectly, and just use the extra unfinished tote for the KK5. Just need a few more projects