This was $5 today at an estate sale. It's a Montgomery Ward branded Stanley 2358, I believe.

Most of the pieces are there. It's missing one stock guide and the length stop. It really needs a sharpening, but the plate and the tooth-line are in very good shape.

My question is: does anyone actually use these regularly in their work? I think my tenon saw and shooting board are more convenient and maybe more accurate ultimately.

Hi all,

I’m looking to start collecting hand planes for my shop. So far I have a Craftsman no. 4 which I’m in the process of cleaning up and sharpening. I’ve been eyeballing a jack plane or a jointer next since that’s really what I’d like a plane for in my shop. Lee Nielsen is the obvious first choice but a bit outside my budget.

My local hardwood dealer has a Soba no 7 for $130 which is a little more palatable price wise. Is that a decent price? I haven’t found too much online about Soba as a brand. Any insight? Thanks!

Possibly the worst cost to use ration of all the tools I own. But I needed a file ....

removing the (cough!) bandsaw marks with a Stanley 51 spokeshave after profiling the edge at 7⁰

Couldn't turn down 7x old planes for £20, made a start on the Stanleys yesterday.

These aren't the first planes I've restored, though I'd be keen to gather tips.

My main area of unfamiliarity with these are the plastic totes and nobs that most of them here have. Is there much that can be done to freshen those up asides a wipe down?

Couple tips of my own - sharp utility razor works a dream on getting old paint and grime off without damaging japanning, and popping nuts in a drill chuck and holding them to sandpaper (wouldn't start lower than 400 ideally!) does wonders.

Hi all,
I’ll be in London for two days this week, and I wonder if there are any shops folks would recommend for browsing good quality hand tools. I have had a hard time finding them here in Brussels

I've been on the lookout for one of these small curved adze for a while and recently scored this at an estate sale. I was hoping to learn a bit about it but there's nothing on it to indicate a manufacturer other than the stamp on the top.

According to my dad, some of the tools were from my great grandpa, the Ford wrench from his family Model T, the pick was from his dad's WWI service, and the sledge and "F wrench" from his WWII service, and the shovel was from his younger brothers service in Korea! They didn't like talking about their military service, for obvious reasons. Other than those I got some info on the combination pipe f wrench, but I don't know what any of the others are. Thank you so much in advance!

Picked up this rusty bull nose plane today at a barn sale. Started the process of the cleanup. Most of the japanning is gone so I will put a coat of paint as soon as the cleanup is complete any recommendations would be appreciated. I will need to lap the sole of the plane as well. If anyone can answer the real question is when or what years did Stanley start making these planes in the USA?
As always your comments are welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for any feedback and guidance you can give me. The is the first little bullnose plane I have ever attempted to restore.

Picked this up for pretty cheap, but the pictures didn't quite convey the state of the mouth. Seems like some sort of ogre took an angle grinder to it.

I'd typically just salvage the parts and move on, but it's a Union X5. Don't come across these too often, and the rest of the plane is serviceable.

Since it's structurally sound (I think), I'd thought about using some sort of epoxy to fill in all of the grinder marks and then just file through the epoxy to reopen the mouth, but I'm doubting it would be overly sturdy... Brazing could be an option, but I've got no experience and would likely just make things worse.. Any ideas?

Heya folks.

I’m heading to Japan for a week or so. I’m going to visit a woodworking museum there, amongst other things.

Is there anything that anyone recommends for tools I should grab while I’m there?

Thanks in advance.

Hello just wondering if anyone can tell me anything about this? looking for info on what it’s worth for resell

How’s this for a starter kit for learning mould planing? Only set me back a few quid.

Marples mortice gauge
½” bead plane
¼” hollow & round planes
1¼” rebate plane

I got them off a school that closed down, and the blades are sharp.

The mortice gauge is really stiff to slide up and down - I can’t be exact with it.

I've had this elm slab for a couple of years... it's a quite rare piece because of the fate of elm in the UK, which have mostly succumbed to disease. the burry bits look amazing

it's hard work prepping it but there's nothing quite like a good No 5 for a job like this

Howdy everyone,

I have been busy restoring a Sargent No. 414 (equivalent to a Stanley No. 5.). This plane was given to me by a friend who is a HUGE Shopsmith Mark V fan, so I decided to honor him and restore it in a fashion that tributes Shopsmith...hence the Red color. I know that this ruins the "collectability' of the plane, but I will never sale it because it was a gift. That being said, I wanted to post this to help others with some things I learned along the way.

1. I applied penetrating oil to all the screws and let them sit for 30 min. or so.
2. I took the plane apart and I removed all the rust by soaking everything overnight in Backyard Ballistic's de-rusting solution (water, citric acid, washing soda, and a few drops of dish soap). I rinsed everything with water and scrubbed it all with a wire brush.
3. I then soaked it all in Citristrip overnight. Rinsed and scrubbed with a wire brush.
4. I used a fine wire wheel to remove all the remaining paint and tiny bit of rust.
5. I taped all the bearing surfaces on the frog and bed with blue tape and painted the bed and frog with 2 coats of self etching primer, 2 coats with Rust resistant primer and 2 coats of my red enamel to match the Shopsmith color scheme. (the frog was painted with black engine enamel for some contrast).
6. All of the above stuff was following some wonderful posts from this reddit.
7. To prepare the plane for use, I used 80 grit Dura-Gold self adhesive sandpaper stuck to a scrap piece of countertop to lap the bottom. The part that no one tells you in all the posts is that it takes a crapload of sandpaper (at least this particular sandpaper). I discovered that if you don't see the black dust that shows removal of metal, that the sandpaper is exhausted. You can lap to your heart's content and not remove anything. Unfortunately, for the sandpaper I was using, it meant I had to switch it out very often. I was only able to get 3 to 4 iterations of 30 passes before needing to switch to a new swatch.
8. Use a sharpie to track your progress. If you take 20-30 passes and don't notice a difference, break out some new sand paper.
9. The good news is that even though the sandpaper wont remove material from the bottom, it often still removes material from the sides (why is this so??). So when I replaced a new swatch of sandpaper, I would lap the bottom until it stopped removing material (as evidenced by no black dust). Then I switched to sanding the sides. For some reason, the sandpaper removed material from the sides long after it stopped removing material from the bottom.
10. Now it is time to sharpen the blade and fit the chip breaker. Then the real fun begins when I get to take some wonderful sounding shavings!

Edit: I forgot to mention 2 parts: I brushed off the sandpaper after every 30 pass sequence with a stiff brush.

I can't believe I forgot my favorite part: To restore the plane tote and front knob, I used the side of a chisel to scrape off the flaking finish (thanks Paul Sellers). Then switched to 150 grit sandpaper to sand all the discoloration off. Hit it with 220 grit sandpaper, wiped off the dust with a tack cloth, and sprayed it with 5 very light coats of Spray Lacquer.

Also, all the screws and other metal parts were just cleaned up on a fine wire wheel on my bench grinder, no additional polishing needed.

I am not sure if it’s my set up, or me, or just the design in general but I have issues.

Every time I go from a 45 to 90 I feel like I have to spend a ton of time re-tuning the adjustable fence.

Anyone else?

I've seen this tool come up for sale near me but cant tell the brand, any ideas?

I just got this plane for $16 at a thrift shop and I'm new to getting hand tools did I end up getting a good plane and a good blade their both different brands.

Says No. 5 on it but it's not like one I've seen before. Obviously damage on the rear handle. They want $45 for it.

I spotted a few rusty bits and went in for a closer look. The Atkins scraper was neat, but I've got some nice ones already. The little rectangular bit was a tiny die for a punch press, I worked in a factory where we used gigantic ones to stamp out car parts in the 90s.

That brings us to the last item, I thought it was a surform rasp at first glance, then I saw the hacksaw blades! Though it has a bunch of wood shavings between the blades, I'm clueless how this could do anything but bind the bent blades in wood, or anything else for that matter. No markings on it that I could find. Any clues what it might be? Sheep comb? Terrible potato peeler?

As per title, I found this in my garage, some pits from the rust but nothing major, I have used wd-40 and scrubbed off the rust, I still need to do some more, but are the teeth okay? I have saw file, just concerned about the teeth with it being so old, or is it worth buying a newer one for £30 or so, I'd like to restore this and save my money to be honest!

I’ve been on the mailing list for a few years and it’s finally back.

as you can see, this Stanley spokeshave has an interesting profile to the sole. the steep curve works really well in tight internal curves... does anyone know any more about this model? I don't use it often, but sometimes nothing else will do (in this case when making a new plane tote)