A friend gave me this plane after church this morning. I don't know much about handtools but am hopeful I can get it into working condition. I haven't looked into details on it yet but see it is a no. 5. Definitively will need to cleanup quite a bit of rust and see what I can do to sharpen the blade.

Any general (or specific!) suggestions are welcome.

@steven newman

Based on the depth adjuster knob looks like a Stanley to me. Lever cap may be a substitute but I do think there may have been some which did not have Stanley markings. As to the lateral adjustment lever they go all over as to configuration. Look at Patricks Blood and Gore

for more specifics on Stanley planes.

I'm not knowledgeable enough to make a guess, but except for that "no. 5" cast into the toe it really looks like a Keen Kutter #5 I have. We. one other difference is that knob. If Newman checks in he might have some more helpful info. While it resembles a Keen Kutter, I don't think it is....but they were mostly made by Stanley as I understand it. Regardless of all this it should make a good user and plan on getting some sharpening method set up for it if you don't have one.

Good morning Barb.

From the pictures it doesn't appear to have much rust, the body of the plane looks like it has heavy patina. Nothing that would require any harsh abrasives. Does it actually have surface rough textured rust?

When I work on a plane like yours, I like to keep the original look as much as I can, my goal is not to make it look shiny and new. Just clean, free of rust, and all moving parts move nicely and freely.

Here's what I would do:

1. Disassemble plane entirely, it's pretty straight forward, a straight slot screw driver is all you'll need.

2. All the metal parts you can spray with WD-40 or similar, any lubricating fluid will work.

3. Use #0000 steel wool and put some elbow grease into all the steel parts. (One caveat, there is typically a black paint (Japanning) in various locations of the plane, usually inside the body walls and deck, and behind and on top of the frog recesses, I'll show you a diagram of plane parts below, in which case you'd not use steel wool, you should be able to wipe those areas clean, on your plane I did not see any black paint but I thought I'd note that step for ya.) For now stay away from any temptation to wire wheel the plane, the patina that has formed on the plane body is actually pretty nice, and also protects the metal from rust.

4. Once you have all the metal cleaned up, please take a picture of the parts laid out, and re-post here so we can see what you have, and walk you through the rest of the process (such as blade sharpening, wood handles maintenance etc.)

My way of bringing back a hand plane to life is not the only way, like anything there are more than a hundred ways to skin this cat, I feel it's the most straight forward for ya, and like I said, once you get the metal cleaned up, post a photo of your parts laid out, and we'll take it from there, you still have to sharpen the iron, and that's another subject, but we'll get ya a user up and running! ☺️

Looking closer at your body and frog, you may have some Jappaning, just be careful in those areas, wipe away the dirt to see if any black paint remains after all these years, the white arrows are where I think you'll have black paint.

Thank you for all the info! Not sure when I'll get to this as I really hope to finish the mitersaw station this week. Plus my husband decided he wants to work on building a wavy American Flag so I expect I'll help with preparing the wood so he can try the carving part.

Some closeups of the painted areas - not in great shape, but still there in places.

1 hour ago, BB1 said:

building a wavy American Flag

Love to see it when it's finished!!

Hey Barb, looks like you got a little Japanning left on that plane doesn't it?

In that case since we aren't concerned about protecting the black coating, but replacing it, you can remove it with paint remover/stripper, I like Citristrip myself just because it doesn't knock ya over with heavy odors.

I wasn't sure how Japanning is done, so I looked it up and it's a little bit of a process, personally I wouldn't mess with it myself, I'd recreate the black Japanning with some gloss black enamel spray paint, a few coats of that and IMHO you get the same result.