Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Plane Hunting

Finding myself in Upstate NY over the Holiday week I did a little hunting, plane hunting. I knew from my previous visits up here that there was a great antique mall that had a hug hand tool section. Leaving Pam to look through the rest of the antiques I headed straight for my prey. This booth has a bunch of old Stanley, Bailey, and Sargent Plane's all in very good shape. He also had many wooden molding planes and a few wooden rabetting planes that were tempting, but that wasn't what I was gunning for. I was looking for a large style router plane to go with my small Lee Valley router plane. Something like a Stanley 71.



There was a nice wooden coffin smoother in this bunch much like one that I plan to make, I looked it over but the throat was pretty wide so I decided to go with one I make and keep looking for the router plane.









More eye candy for you old plane nuts.













Some very nice old heavy metal for your viewing pleasure, a couple of those No.# 7's were tempting.








Finally I spotted my goal, a whole herd of router planes, some old, some lame, but I singled out this prime buck and he was mine. As you can see, bright metal, never been rusted, good looking handles, all parts there. This plane has been well kept and used, you can see lap marks on the bottom, which is gleaming silver, and the blade was sharp even with a micro bevel. Someone loved this plane and now it's going to live in my tool chest and get used alot.

Kaytrim in The Woodwhisperer chat room helped me date this as between 1910-1924, perfect timing for the Arts and Crafts Period. I particularly like the Script "Stanley 71 1/2" and the patent date of 10-29-01, that's 1901.


As a bonus I also found a very nice spoke shave, Stanley No.# 51, the blade is stamped, Stanley Rule and Level Co. This tool has been used well, but not abused, again, no rust, no missing parts. A little sharpening and wax and its ready for work.


Happy Holiday's to you all, and good hunting.
Brad

Thursday, December 11, 2008

the Ulitimate guy present

I was walking in Lowes yesterday trying to decide what to get my brothers for Christmas and I bumped into the ultimate guy toy.
It is a $1600 stainless steel toolbox from Kobalt.
This behemoth holds 4000 lbs worth of tools, probably more than even the most diehard car nut has. It has LED lights in the upper lid. All the drawers run on ball bearing full extension guides and are lined with thick rubber padding in Kobalt's trademark blue color. You have to plug this bad boy in to power the lights and the stereo system, but it has a protected power strip on the side. It has a Pioneer CD player with its own speaker's and a connection for your iPod.
What looks like a cabinet door on the lower left is actually a refrigerator for "refreshments" and snacks.

While I am a wood guy and not a car guy, I can see why someone would lust after one of these babies. I can see this parked in a spotless garage with an epoxy painted floor next to a vintage sports car that only sees the road on sunny weekends. A car thats something that you work on and polish, a car that looks really great sitting next to your Stainless steel huge toolbox.