A couple of weekends ago, I went on the World’s Longest Yard Sale on US 127 looking for old tools and other things to sell. Sunday, I ran across a guy selling junk just north of Cincinnati and saw this plane on a table. The guy told me that his prices were negotiable so I asked what he wanted for this plane. He told me $2.00, but I countered that I would give him a buck for it and he accepted. I really didn’t need it, but I wanted to buy something during the day. The blade was marked Van Camp which I believe was a hardware store back in the day however, the plane was more likely made by the Sargent Tool Company.
Every time I restore a tool, I start by sticking the parts in a tub of water with a cup of citric acid. I let the parts soak for about an hour and then wipe them clean once I take them out of the solution.
I took the time to fettle the bed since the plane’s body was so small. Honestly, I don’t think the bed was that bad to deserve to be fettled, but I was in the mood. I went through a series of wet sand paper grits, from 220 to 500 to 1000 grit.
You can see the smoothness of the bed when shown through the light. The bed doesn’t have to be completely free of pitting, just flat enough from front to back.
After the bed was fettled, I soaked all the parts of the plane with my custom solution of mineral oil, orange oil, and melted bees-wax.
Next, I sharpened the blade by using my Tormek sharpening system and a set of water stones. I was able to shave the hairs on my arm with this blade.
All tuned up, the plane takes nice curly shavings. Not bad for a buck.
For years I used this squirrel tailed plane. It works okay but the shavings are not that clean and it’s a pain in the ass to set properly with the screw and cap.
You can see the difference when you flip the two over. The area of the mouth is a lot tighter on my buck plane than the squirrel tail plane. The tight mouth keeps the wood fibers pressed down just until they hit the edge of the blade giving me a nicer shaving.
My new plane still fits nicely in the holder where my old squirrel tailed plane sat. Maybe I should have given the guy $2.00. haha
MVFlaim Furnituremaker 
Have the same plane. A cute little thing to work with. Good find.
A dying trade. Two dollars is two dollars too short for the trade.
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Tell us something we don’t know. Sorry to say that your tool restorations don’t hold a candle to those we see in hand plane restoration books, articles and high-powered blogs like Sawmill Creek and Handplane Central.
And you haven’t rescued any rare or significant pieces.. still, your tool exploits are better than your futrniture creations. What put me over the edge finally is your constant bragging about your high end power tools by the likes of Tormek and Festool.
My mother and the rules of polite society taught me that if you can’t make a positive contribution, don’t make one ar all.
So with some regret, I am terminating my subscription. I think you are a nice well intentioned guy who does not do things that advance my knowledge.
a positive comment, don
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Hey Shel, what gives bud? I didn’t mean to make this post about bragging about my tools. My intention was to show how easy it is to take a piece of junk and turn it into a nice user tool. The fact that I gave the guy only a buck for the plane is because I felt I really didn’t need it.
As far as my restoration process, again my intention is to show how easy it is to make an old tool sing. Ive seen the videos of guys who fettle the frog with water stones and spend hours flattening the bed until it shines all the way through, but I think that’s going over board in most cases. My feeling is that the old guys didn’t do all that crap and they still got to tools to perform properly. Think of me as the Bob Ross of antique tool restoration.
As far as bragging about my tools, Im just showing you my process. My Tormek is almost twenty years old and has a wobble in the stone I need to fix. When I bought the thing, it was half the price it is now. There are probably better sharpening systems out there today, but I’ve never used them so I don’t know. I never talk about my Festool tools as I only own a couple of sanders and the vacuum my wife bought me for Christmas because she wanted to use it when she sands the old furniture she repaints. You must have just seen the festool tools in background of my photos
You gotta understand that I work fulltime so my time in my shop is dedicated to restoring tools and making stuff for my wife. We have a business together and she’ll have me make things to sell, like the farmhouse table and the Ohio signs.
I’ve built higher end furniture in the past like a Pennsylvania secretary and windsor chairs, but that was years ago before I had this blog.
However I understand what you’re saying. It may seem like Im just bragging about my tool purchases and make simple things that don’t require much skill, but that is where I am in life. Hopefully in the future I’ll be able to step up my game and build a Maloof rocker, but right now , I can’t even afford the wood.
Man, after seven years, this blog finally has become fun! haha
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To Shel Sanders~. Maybe you should learn to spell and use correct grammar a**hole!
Adios Bitchios! (Insert middle finger)
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What’s your ratio of your “custom mix” of mineral oil, orange oil, and melted bees-wax? That sounds like something that I’d like to try.
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I basically take a slice from a bees wax candle and throw it into a pot until it melts. Then I pour in equal parts of mineral oil and orange oil, stir it all around, then I pour it in a glass container. I wrote a blog about it years ago, but I might make a YouTube video to show how well it works.
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That diatribe from Shel was a bit bizarre. I was able to figure out that you were showing how a little work can make a dog of a tool and turn it into something useful. It was pretty clear what you wrote.
I also have an old beater block plane that I tried to give away and no one wanted it. So, I took it apart, cleaned it and sharpened the blade, and the darn thing works pretty well and makes nice shavings.
Interesting blog, I’ll stop back by.
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I know, Shel was one of my loyalists followers. I think I even sold him a plane of mine on eBay a few years back. I guess me blogging about making simple projects with fancy tools threw him over the edge and he decided to burn me about it. Oh well, I blog whenever I feel like it with whatever I’m doing at the current time. I’m working on a new topic now that should be more interesting than the farmhouse crap I make. haha
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I was a contractor, now retired, and owned a lot of expensive tools that my employees and I used on a daily basis. I took a lot of grief from people and I usually had to either ignore them or tell them to back TFO because I wasn’t running my business to suit them. I owned nice Hilti, Festool, Bosch etc equipment and usually the haters were telling me that their Home Depot lime green Ryobi stuff was just as good. (Eyeroll imogi here)
I bought the tools to make money and to do work in a safer way for me and the guys (example, good dust control with Festool and Hilti vacs). When I retired I sold most of it because there wasn’t any emotional attachment to what are, at the end of the day, just tools. People are goofy about this stuff, aren’t they?
I always say, get emotionally attached to people, not things.
Although I will admit that I own and still use some old hand tools that belonged to my grandfather and great grandfather , and those mean more to me in the long run than an expensive power tool.
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i just googled GTL planes. Your blog was the only result. I have an identical plane to the one you bought at auction. I forget where mine came from – a car boot probably. Anyway, i had an engineer mass sharpen about 10 chisels and planes and one of his customers (a shipwright) spotted my plane and said it was worth more than the rest put together. Having read your blog – you weren’t too impressed – i’m beginning to have doubts. But i suppose even if the quality is not great, it could have rarity value. Any thoughts?
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I’m not sure its worth that much. I’ve seen them for sale every now and then. I don’t remember them going for that much money. In fact, I believe I sold that plane for under $80 a few years ago.
The plane looks nice but works like a piece of shit.
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I meant to say 100, not 10 (i’m not that lazy!)
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