Hand plane gloat

[Mike Manning]

I went to an estate sale last week that was across town. It started at 10am. As I avoid rush hour traffic like the plague, I realized if I was going to go it had to be real early before rush hour or after it opened. I chose the former and had been waiting for 2 hours before the 2nd guy showed up. I had seen one bad pic of a couple of hand planes and I hoped they might be Stanley Bailey and from the size I thought they could be a No 8 and a No 6. My hopes proved well founded but the big surprise was a couple of other planes which weren't in the pic - a No 3 type 16 and a Bedrock No 4. The Bedrock cleaned up nicely. I think it's a type 7. At first I thought the lever cap was a replacement as it is marked Stanley not Bedrock. After some research I now believe it's likely the original. Sadly, it has at least 3 chips out of the front edge and will need to be replaced. It has the final version of the sweetheart iron. I'm still working on my sharpening skills and will try to get the blade sharpened this week. The Bedrock No 4 set me back $20. I posted a pic of the bottom of the knob where you can see the vertical cracks. Two of them are about 3/4" long. I'm wondering if there's anything I can do now to stop these from getting any worse?

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[Jim Koepke]

Nice score Mike, did you pick up any of the other planes?

jtk

[Stew Denton]

MIke, ya did good! Great price for a #4 Bed Rock.

Stew

[Bill McNiel]

Mike,
Nice score. Epoxy can be your friend on the knob.

[Stew Denton]

Mike, the plane is in beautiful condition, with the exception of the lever cap. Like you, I believe that the lever cap is the original for that plane, as I went down the exact road you are on. After some significant study I realized that they switched from the "Bed Rock" lever cap to the "Stanley" type lever cap at some point.

The advantage of that situation is that the lever cap for the Bailey planes of that date are the same as the lever caps for the Bed Rock planes I think. (I would have to go out in the garage to try it, but I believe they are the same.) The advantage is that there were a lot more Bailey planes made than Bed Rock planes, so those parts are much easier to find and a LOT cheaper than you have to pay if the lever cap says "Bed Rock."

I suppose you already know this but you can find that part on the auction site. Take your time buying the replacement lever cap however, as there are 3 or 4 main sellers of parts for planes, and they want way too much for the parts, in my view. Eventually a single seller will come along that wants a reasonable price for the part, or you can buy a broken "parts plane" some of the time for a lot less than the "planes parts" sellers want for such. As you probably know, the Stanley #5 and Stanley #4 take exactly the same lever cap, chip breaker, and iron, so your parts plane can be either a #4 or a #5, and either a Stanley Bailey or Stanley Bed Rock plane, but you will pay less for the Bailey.

At any rate, even if you have to buy a replacement lever cap, you are still way ahead on the plane you bought. You got it at, in my view anyway, an extremely good price for that plane. EXTREMELY good price.

If you want to glue up the knob, I would use Original Gorilla Glue. However, the front knob and the tote are both rose wood on those era Stanley planes, and that type of wood has an oil content. To get a good glue job, you need to clean the surfaces to be glued with something to get the oil out of the wood surface. Acetone is pretty good for that.

That said, I would not glue it. A lot of the old Stanley planes have cracks in the knob, but they have held up from 90 to more than 100 years just fine, with the cracks in place. If the knob ever splits then you can pull it the rest of the way apart, clean both halves of the joint with acetone and THEN glue it The Gorilla Glue does not seem to show up as a white line under the finish, but let it dry well first before adding any finish, at a minimum of 24 hours in my opinion.

Regards,

Stew

[Mike Manning]

Jim, They all came home with me. The #8 and #6 are type 11 with lots of patina and virtually no rust, both are corrugated and appear to have their original parts in good order but I have yet to get started cleaning them up. So we'll see.

Stew, Thanks. I already made a last minute bid on an age appropriate Stanley lever cap on eprey this weekend. I've noticed those couple of sellers who sell LOTS of parts at higher than the rest prices. One will come along. I think I'll take your advice and wait on the knob to see if it gets worse.

Thanks for the advice Bill.

[Jim Koepke]

I think I'll take your advice and wait on the knob to see if it gets worse.

Many of my totes have been fixed with clear epoxy. Mixing it with a bit of sawdust from a piece of rosewood or other dark wood helps to hide the glue line.

jtk

[steven c newman]

Maybe a squirt of CA glue ( Super Glue) into the cracks from the inside?

Lever caps with chipped edge: Common for some of the older ones, as they were sometimes used as a screwdriver to remove the chipbreaker from the iron, for a quick sharpeneing. Unless they are "HUGE", just a simple grind back to remove, re-polish the edge so shavings won't catch...back to work. There is enough "meat" at the end of the lever caps for this sort of thing. Just polish away the smaller chip-outs, and slick-up the bevel a bit.

Best clamp to repair a broken rear handle? USE the bolt that holds the handle to the plane. wax, tape, oil..whatever so the bolt will not be stuck in the glued up handle...Maybe remove a thread or two from the bolt, so when you re-install the handle, the bolt will hold the handle tightly in place...until the glue is cured...(maybe wrap the outside of the handle to help alignment?)

[Jim Koepke]

I posted a pic of the bottom of the knob where you can see the vertical cracks. Two of them are about 3/4" long. I'm wondering if there's anything I can do now to stop these from getting any worse?

Mike, a closer look at the image of your knob appears as if the problem may be the wood drying out. It may be possible to close up the cracks by soaking the knob in some BLO or a furniture oil.

The top bore could closed with some tape with tape also wrapped around the outside to seal off the cracks. Then pour oil into the bolt and boss bore.

This has worked for me to close up openings in knife and shovel handles.

jtk

[Mike Manning]

Jim, it isn't clear to me if this should be done with the knob intact on the plane or removed. Can you please clarify? I've got BLO but if oil is better what weight oil is best? Thanks!

Steven, the chips are about 1/8" deep. I plan on replacing the lever cap.

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[Jim Koepke]

Jim, it isn't clear to me if this should be done with the knob intact on the plane or removed. Can you please clarify? I've got BLO but if oil is better what weight oil is best? Thanks!

Steven, the chips are about 1/8" deep. I plan on replacing the lever cap.

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Remove the knob. Place a piece of tape over the top to seal off the counter bore for the top of the bolt. Wrap some tape around the base to seal off the cracks. BLO would be better than most oils. Other than that you would want an oil made for treating wood. Many furniture oils are based on mineral oil or orange oil.

Another way to do this might be to suspend the knob on a string or wire so it can be soaked in a bath of BLO in a small container, base down. That is how some of my handles have been done.

BLO might require some warmth to dry. After it has soaked over night it can be wiped down and set under an incandescent lamp or near a heater vent. Do not set it near a flame or other source of ignition. BLO can be flammable.

Your leaver cap is usable as is. So you should not be in a hurry or over bid to replace it.

jtk

[Stew Denton]

Mike, I think the BLO suggestion from Jim, above, is an extremely good suggestion.

I would add one suggestion to what Jim wrote. If the knob has remaining finish on it, I would sand the knob down to bare wood. If you do not do that, the finish will potentially decrease the ability of the wood to absorb the BLO. This due to the finish sealing off the wood.

HOWEVER, one thing with regard to treating rosewood with BLO is that the rosewood will likely turn black. I have one of my planes that I treated the knob and tote with BLO, the knob and tote are now very dark. I have also seen others post similar effects with BLO treatment of rosewood. I do not know if the rosewood can be sanded lightly to remove the very dark color. It may be possible to do such, but I do not know whether this is the case or not.

Hopefully someone has tried sanding the dark color away, and can chime in.

Regards,

Stew

[Jim Koepke]

HOWEVER, one thing with regard to treating rosewood with BLO is that the rosewood will likely turn black.

If you can find it locally, you could use tung oil instead. That is my current favorite for wooden kitchen knife handles.

jtk

[Mike Manning]

I've got BLO and I've got some tung oil. Both were picked up in estate sales. While I don't necessarily mind it being black from BLO if I can have it either way I'd choose tung oil to preserve the beauty of the rosewood. I suppose if I'm going to do the knob I may as well do the tote to match. Should I put anything on top of the tung oil? I haven't actually ever used it. Thanks guys!

Mike

[Jim Koepke]

I've got BLO and I've got some tung oil. Both were picked up in estate sales. While I don't necessarily mind it being black from BLO if I can have it either way I'd choose tung oil to preserve the beauty of the rosewood. I suppose if I'm going to do the knob I may as well do the tote to match. Should I put anything on top of the tung oil? I haven't actually ever used it. Thanks guys!

Mike

If you use it in an open bath, then put something over it.

Otherwise you could use a piece of tape over the top of the tote and have it standing up with oil in the bolt bore.

Maybe put these in something to catch any drips or leaks.

If there is any left after soaking overnight you might want to use a rag to rub it all over the outside of the knob and tote.

jtk