When you can’t source the right tool you need for a job, or can’t afford to buy one, what do you do?
One answer is to get hold of ‘dead’ tools and give them a new lease of life. If like me you’re into fettling and you are patient then the rewards are good, inexpensive tools and sense of satisfaction at your handy work.
This week my bid of £9.50 won me a ’60s Stanley No.5 Jack Plane (for working wood). There’s all kinds of planes (no.3, 4, 5, 5.5 and so on) but that’s another story. The no.5 is called a ‘Jack’ (jack of all trades) and is the primary one you can use to get wood into general shape.
The seller was very clear it was scrap (or more politely ‘for restoration’) so I was under no illusion about the effort it would need to make good. When it arrived wrapped up inside a Golden Wonder crisps box, all rusty and smelling of grease, I was very happy.
Removing all the rust, un-jamming all the screws and levers, taking away the worst of corrosion and pitting, was the major part of the work.
Here I’m rubbing the sole of the plane across abrasive papers wetted with glass cleaner. A messy job and required about 40 minutes of graft, but a good work out.
The irony is that I bought this old plane because a similar but brand new plane I bought turned out to be so poorly made. People say that the quality of tools from classic brands like Stanley and Record is much lower than it used to be, as they have concentrated on cheapness rather than quality. That’s my experience too. Shame really as it’s the quality that made their brand names in the first place.
Anyway I cannibalised that new plane for its only decent parts (the wooden handles and the blade). After restoring the old plane and adding those parts back it looked something like a plane again.
This whole effort taking me about 2 hours on a Sunday it was quite therapeutic and satisfying. Here it is back in action again taking lovely consistent thin shavings just as it was meant for.