The Mother in Law's plane...

[British Red]

The other day my 69 year old mother in law rang and asked my advice. She had changed the hall carpet and needed to plane down some doors.

How impressive is that? A lady pushing 70 who planes and hangs her own doors?

Some screw heads were damaged on her doors, so I talked her through the procedure for removing damaged screws. She popped over to borrow a drill and brought her plane with her. She handed it to me saying she used to get her uncle to sharpen it....

As impressed as I am with people who are self reliant, I did have a bit if a sad sigh at a lovely rosewood handled Stanley Bailey no 3 looking so tired. I removed the plane iron (which as well as being blunt as a butter knife had clearly been sharpened off true.

I told her it would take more than a few minutes to sharpen that properly, so I loaned her a Stanley No. 4 I keep for such occasions and held onto her No. 3 for a while

Given this was a family member and the plane meant something to her I decided to do a little more than sharpen it.

I wont bore you with the "process" pictures as I have shown them on here before (they are on the blog if you really want to see them).

This is how the plane looks now

I hope she is pleased.

I must say I'll be sorry to see the back of the number 3 as I dont have one in that size and its a lovely tool - small but perfectly formed.

 

[mick91]

Nicely done red. Breathed life back into a well made tool that should last twice as long again as it already has

 

[Robbi]

nice one ! that looks lovely now.

 

[Mesquite]

Beautifully restored Hugh

Unfortunately you're not getting my No 4, I'm keeping it for use occasionaly round the house

 

[British Red]

Ahhh Steve, No.4s I have aplenty - including my own Mums You have been more than generous on the plane front already...indeed that one is going to get serious attention once the nights draw in!

 

[Samon]

Good to see the breath of life put in to old stuff and especially for such a mature women to use!

British Red, I think I have a Stanley No.3 in my box of old tools.. If it is a No.3, would you like me to let you know? maybe work something out?

 

[Macaroon]

Beautiful tool - what a lovely set of handles there!

 

[dazcon]

Very nice! Looks superb. That plane's got some character, not like the soul-less plastic handled ones they sell nowadays.
nice one!!

 

[British Red]

Hi Samon, I'd love a really old no 3 but I probably shouldn't! I have a gorgeous no. 6 that needs some love next, but thank you so much!

 

[santaman2000]

Outstanding job!

 

[milius2]

well done BR!

 

[Mesquite]

Ahhh Steve, No.4s I have aplenty - including my own Mums You have been more than generous on the plane front already...indeed that one is going to get serious attention once the nights draw in!

I'm looking forward to seeing you work your magic on it Hugh

 

[sandbender]

thats a lovely job, nicely done.

 

[brancho]

Nice work Red

 

[topknot]

I say, You done a very good job on that Red

Topknot

 

[Goatboy]

You've done a lovely job on that. Puts me in mind of my Uncle Talbot.
As a kid we'd go and visit him, a retired cabinet maker his rambling old toll house smelled wonderfully of pipe smoke and furniture polish. Old grandfather clock deeply ticking away in the hall (it stopped and wouldn't start again when he died). Was excited to hear on one visit that he'd bought a telly. We didn't have on and I was excited to watch it. But on getting to his house it was nowhere to be seen. Between ordering it and it being delivered he'd built a beautiful cabinet to hide it as he didn't want to spoil the look of his living room.
His workshop was always neat and the rows of gleaming well cared for tools, some I couldn't figure what they were for.
Nice to see what you've done to the plane, a real top job.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[demographic]

Nice clean up, besides a No3 is a bit small to be planing doors anyway so the No4 is better.

Personally I use a 5 1/2 wider and longer jackplane to finish doors off but I made decent money for a while using a 4 as well.