I started repair work way back in the 70's at a local TV repair shop in my home town. After a couple of years there, I went to college and I got into computers and have been there ever since (30 years!!!). Out of college, I started as a repair technician, then a programmer, now I'm a technical lead.
As a hobby I was an avid wood worker. One day I inherited my grandfather�s Old Stanley #7 hand plan (type 11 from around 1912). I have always loved history and I started to collect and restore old hand tools and I used them whenever I could, even when a modern powered equivalent was available. I found I loved restoration� bring things back from the brink was very satisfying.
Electrolysis was used to render the rust back to iron. There is one person in this country that still makes the original jappaning fromula which I use. Jappaning is a time consuming process (which is another stroy). The the plane hardware was polished and the bed was lapped to ensure square flat surfaces. Blade was hand sharpend on a wetstone.
you can see the completed plane is quite nice.
Blade cap and irons were rusted. Planes from this era should be keep in as close to original condition as they can. I left the origianl jappan in place (85% complete). Removing paint from the wood handles is an interesting and time consuming process (that too, is another story), especially without destoying the "Stanely Tools" decal on the handle (A rare decal to find intact on a 70+ year old plane. this one was 75% complete.).
