The Embalmed Plane after the restoration.
Date: Sun, 18 Aug 1996 From: Tom Price To: OldTools Subject: Gloat - The Embalmed Plane **Warning** - Gloat, Flea Market Adventures Etc. Esteemed Galoots, Ah, the Dog Days of summer are upon us here in my little corner of the East Coast. The temperature isn't too high but it's mighty sticky for all that. Flea market dealers either tend to be testy under these conditions or in a state of torpor. I prefer the latter condition since they seem to be easier to deal down. One of the testier individuals I have encountered recently had a Millers Falls 9C on the table in what appeared to be an advanced state of decomposition. This dealer occasionally has a tool but nothing I ever wanted before. He and his wife deal out of an ancient green van and run a couple of tables. I have this thing for Millers Falls planes so I stopped and gave it a once over. It appeared to be very rusty with a real gunky coating of grime and that really scaly rust that screams pitting underneath. Oddly enough the wood and japanning seemed to be quite good. The guy barked out "That's $15" the second I touched the plane. "Yeah, right" thought I as I looked the corpse over. This was a fixer-upper if I ever saw one, at least at first glance. However, it seemed to be a type I had not seen before, and actually didn't seem to fit within any of the types in Randy Roeder's MF plane study. I wanted it. I countered with $10, explaining that the the level of rust was a problem. He hesitated. His wife's sharp voice emanated from the dark recesses of the van saying, "Hold your ground Harv! Don't let him deal you down!". He stiffened like she had poked him in the backside with a Scary-Sharp(TM) chisel. His face reddened and he stuck out his jaw, "Nossir, that's a Millers Falls plane and you don't see them everyday - $15". No dealing this guy down! I stood there and decided that at least I would take down some details of the plane for the MF plane study. I rubbed the area over the trade mark on the blade with my thumb. The 'rust' seemed a bit odd, sort of rubbery, and to my surprise a patch of 'rust' about the size of my thumb rolled away revealing bright shiny blade. What the...? I moved down to the lever cap and dug away with my thumbnail revealing bright shiny nickel. Hmmmmm. What had on first glance looked like rust was actually a coating of some substance over the blade, frog and lever cap of the plane. An embalmed plane! This stuff had hardened to a semi-cured varnish and had attracted a lot of dust and grime in the process. Thus my confusion as to the level of rust. I quickly said, "Well...OK, $15 seems fair". His grin of victory quickly became a scowl as the Voice From The Van said testily, "See, I told you Harv to hold your damn ground, you come down too damn easy!". He put the plane in a bag and shot me a rueful glance as he handed it to me. His look spoke volumes. I certainly didn't envy him his domestic situation. I cleaned up the plane last night and realized that the last owner had spread a liberal amount of what I believe to be linseed oil over the exposed metal parts of the plane. This cured to a rubbery film. I have read that this was once a fairly common practice by farmers for inhibiting corrosion on tillage equipment and shovels, scythes, etc.. Anyone else run into this with a handplane? The embalming was not totally successful in the case of this plane as there was some corrosion on the edges of the lever-cap, blade, and scattered spots on the plane's sole. The stuff came off with WD-40 and a bit of rubbing. The result is a nice 9C with 99.9% japanning (MF did a nicer job of this than Stanley, IMO), bonerific rosewood tote and knob, lotsa nickel, and a freakishly new looking, full-length blade. The blade has the trademark with the "1868" in the lower triangle and the tote and knob and tote are held on with cylindrical knobs on threaded posts. The cylindrical knobs were a surprise with this trademark configuration, much less the fact that they are made of blued steel, not brass. Oh, Randy...... **************************** Tom Price Doing My Part To Fill Up A Weekend Digest
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