Lucky Find

[Brian Eaton]

As I posted in the last thread I started on Monday of this week I stopped by an antique shop on the way to a family get together and found a Stanley No. 4 type 11 and a Sargent 410c type 4 (equivalent to a Stanley 4 1/2) and walked out with them for what I feel like was a steal!

I’m fortunate to have a few weeks off over christmas so have spent any free time I have cleaning the tools up. The Stanley was in decent shape and just needed a good clean but the Sargent was covered in rust. Both planes got a soak overnight in Evaporust (good stuff!) and the tote and knob of the Sargent got stripped to bare wood and recoated with lacquer.

Today I was in my shop or at the kitchen sink most of the day and got both planes cleaned up and in working order. The Stanley will not be a pretty plane as it has pretty consistent pitting on the body, but it doesn’t seem to be severe enough to impact performance. The Sargent, on the other hand, cleaned up exceptionally well. The knob and tote in particular turned out exceptionally beautiful - you never would have known that some nice ribbony mahogany with a deep red/brown color was lurking under the cruddy state I found it in!

As for performance - there isn’t much to say about the Stanley other than it works, and works well. With the mouth and chip breaker set close it takes fluffy shavings in pine and should be a great smoother. The Sargent will take some getting used to. The adjuster knob is threaded opposite of Stanleys and was really messing with my muscle memory. In the limited time I tested it out tonight I found I was missing the lightness of the no. 3 and 4 planes I’m used to working with. It may not get used all the time but I’m certainly going to keep it because of its’ uniqueness and the time I spent cleaning it up.

I have a project to get back to but I’m sure I will get distracted again soon as I also have a George H. Bishop rip saw I got on eBay arriving soon. I might have a tool collecting problem...Thanks for providing such a great resource and happy new year!

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[Richard Jones]

Nicely done, sir. That #4 looks awesome, hope it works well for you. Gloat is well deserved.

[Jim Koepke]

What Richard said.

Those both look like great restorations.

Your #4 looks to be in much better shape than any of mine.

The #410 looks like the poster child for why some folks prefer Sargent planes over Stanley's.

For some of the pieces on you bench it might be the #410 can smooth in one pass as opposed two passes for a #4.

jtk

[Brian Eaton]

Thanks for the responses!

Jim - you are absolutely right. The drawers for a project I'm working on are 2.25" tall and I needed to take about 1/16" off of each to get them to the thickness I want. A few swipes to get close to my lines with my no. 5 and then I grabbed the Sargent to finish them up. They don't need to be finish ready yet but they are now and it was very convenient with the wider Sargent!

The Sargent does look better - I could have done a more thorough clean up on the Stanley but given the overall shape it was in - much cleaner than the Sargent - I decided to really just clean it up. The Sargent was definitely a much fuller restoration.1

[Frederick Skelly]

Man that's great! Good for you!

[Phil Mueller]

Well done, Brian! Excellent restorations. Always nice to put an old tool back to work.