Just as I was finishing off the plane restoration (more posts on that project to follow), a friend gave me two Stanley hand planes that had belonged to his father – a #4 and a#5½. He had no use for them, and since he knew of my fondness for hand tools he thought they might be useful for spares. They had been quietly rusting away for a few years in a shed and, as you can see, they are in pretty bad shape.
This is the #5½, positively caked in rust…
…and this is the #4, equally rusty and with a broken tote to boot.
Now, I’m not one to shirk a challenge, but that seems like an awful lot of de-rusting to me. Nothing daunted however, I shall take up the gauntlet and get to work…
…making this!
This is something that I’ve wanted to try for a while, and now I have the perfect opportunity. It is not exactly perfectly safe though, so I don’t want to leave it on its own for too long. I’ll be back soon with an explanation of what it is (for those of you who haven’t seen one before) as well as some photos of the results. I’m not promising anything. I’ve never done anything like this before,and I have no idea how it is going to turn out. Fingers crossed…
goatboys woodshop 
Cool!
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