Billy made me.......

..do it! The other day Billy called me with a problem with a sticking door he had on his house and needed to plane down the door edge. He had his late father's Stanley #5 hand plane and needed some tips on how it worked. Well, quite frankly, I needed to turn on the "way back" machine and do some thinking as well. We got it figured out and Billy no longer has a sticking door. In the mean time, it got me thinking that maybe I should check out my long forgotten and very lonely Stanley #5. Sure enough, it was still hanging on the wall where I hung it 26 years ago. Pulling it down, reviled plenty of rust. An hour later it was all cleaned up and oiled. It even still makes shavings out of solid wood!

   



The Stanley #5 was probably the best and well used hand plane out there. Yes, the good old days when it didn't come from Chiwaneze.

BTW, I have a hand power plane and the reason the Stanley has been hanging on the wall all these years! Oh, the amazing things electricity can do for us!

Thats even better than a cordless,it's a "Green" model

there is still nothing like the feel of catching that curl and the sound it makes

peter1234 wrote: there is still nothing like the feel of catching that curl and the sound it makes

I'll second that. I dug mine out of the dust for the Hurricane project. Not that I have anything against power tools but sculpting with hand tools is an amazing feeling. There's a place for everything but sometimes you have to slow down and do it old school.

My forearms are burning this morning from using a long board for 8 hours saturday.

81nautique wrote: peter1234 wrote: there is still nothing like the feel of catching that curl and the sound it makes I'll second that. I dug mine out of the dust for the Hurricane project. Not that I have anything against power tools but sculpting with hand tools is an amazing feeling. There's a place for everything but sometimes you have to slow down and do it old school. My forearms are burning this morning from using a long board for 8 hours saturday.

I have to agree with you, some times the 'old' kit works best, I don't think that there is a better feeling than slowly with an old plane, add in not ear defenders etc.
I'm in the lucky situation of a full set of electric and a full set of manual. Some electric are always used and never the manual, some items it's the reverse.

Sharpening, one more Artform.
The thing about is, a person has to like to do it.
I never did.
I worked with a guy who loved to sharpen pretty much anything that needed sharpening.

I've only recently within the last few years gained an interest in learning the art of hand filing a chainsaw chain.

Great post, I have my great grandfathers tool chest. He worked at building railrode cars. Some very cool old molding planes,large hand made planes. For anyone who wants to sharpen the book "Ultimate Edge" will send you down the right path.

Cya Bob

It's really cool to see the interest in old tools here, be it Pete's restored planer and jointer or hand tools. I too have a wooden carpenters box that was my Grandfathers. He was a machinist by trade but had this box of carpenter hand tools. I still will go to that box to find a tool I need at times. I have nearly a dozen hand planes that belonged to my other Grandfather. Most are Stanley planes similar to Pete's in various shapes and sizes. The wooden bodied planes are proudly displayed on my desk.

I have a friend who had a boat building/restoration business for several years here in the Finger Lakes. He had many tools that belonged to his Grandfather and Great Grandfather who were also boat builders. The coolest tools to work with were the 3 in 1 and the 5 in 1 that he had. Tablesaw, jointer, planer, bandsaw and sander all in 1 tool.

David

I have one sitting in a tool bin that was my grandfather's.