Wanted to show off the Christmas gift my crew at work got me. 
 26” wooden jointer plane. Complete with iron, chipbreaker and wedge. Needs a little work to get it back in shape but pretty sweet. The iron shows Providence Tool Compay and is bimetal, cast iron to carbon steel. Not sure if it’s original to the plane but it’s about right for the period.

Cool gift!

That's a keeper and a user Zack! Nice plane. 

Can't wait to see ya get her all tuned up and some whispy shavings falling away from her!

The old tools are still the best

Sweet present Zack. Appears your crew appreciates your talents. Looking forward to seeing you transform it to greatness again.

Very nice. 

9 hours ago, Zack said:

The old tools are still the best

A few folks here who would agree with ya Zack

10 hours ago, Zack said:

and is bimetal, cast iron to carbon steel.

Hey Zack, school me on this one, how did ya know?

1 hour ago, John Morris said:

Hey Zack, school me on this one, how did ya know?

If you look real close at the side you can see a clear line where the iron meets the steel. The iron is rusty and grainy but the steel is still almost shiny. You can see the same characteristics comparing the top surface to the bottom surface. It was how they used to make plane irons and chisels before metallurgy got better. High carbon steel was a little hard to come by and was too brittle so they would weld thin pieces of it to plain iron. My first clue though was the manufacturers marking where they call it “cast steel”. 

On 12/24/2024 at 8:24 AM, John Morris said:

A few folks here who would agree with ya Zack

Yup! There's quite a number of old tools here!

I've got axes that I've cleaned up and when the bluing comes off you can see the line where the metals meet. I don't see pics handy to share,..but..........

 

 

Getting around to re-soling this plane. The replaceable block in front of the mouth was cracked and swollen out, there are also a couple if large cracks running along the sole. Thought I had some before pics of the bottom but guess not.
 I’ve got it planed down flat now. Probably took 1/4 inch off to get it true.

 I’ll cut the center out and insert some hard maple and add another piece of maple along the entire sole to bring it back to the original size. Also need to repair the handle.

Decided to dust this one off..

Button is called a Strike Button..you hit here to loosen the wedge and Iron

Plane is a Sandusky No. 81, and uses a Butcher Iron..

And chipbreaker....

At 22" long, with a 2-3/8" wide iron...seems to be a No. 7 type of Jointer plane...

Very nice. Mine doesn’t have the button, but still hit it in the same spot to remove the iron.

Finally getting back to this. Got the new mouth insert made and glued in. Planed that flush and ready to glue the new sole on.

That's an awesome repair job Zack. Great save on this plane.

Thanks Dave. I filled the biggest crack with epoxy and I’ve got a piece of hard maple I’m going to resole it with. I’ll plane that down and get it back to the original thickness and recut the mouth. I have a desk I’m making for my daughter and her fiance. I want to use this plane for flattening the top.

Resoled, just need to plane it down to size and recut the mouth

Got the sole blocked, planed, flat and level. Should be back to what the original overall thickness of the body was at 3 1/2 inches. 

Recut the mouth

Working on getting the iron back into shape. Has some fair pitting on the flat side at the edge. I’m not a big fan of the ruler trick for flattening irons, but it’s appropriate for this one. I’ve got some work to do here.

Ah for the love of old tools.

Nice work Zack. It's gonna' make a fine user. Whats your plan to rejuvenate the original body. BLO or ???