Hand Planes
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Buck Bros. 7"
Block plane
A simple cleanup
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Did you ever have one of those slow simmering collecting obsessions? You know the kind where you don't even realize you have this obsession until you look around one day and think to yourself, maybe a bit stunned...duuuude. I've had a few of these minor obsessions in my lifetime. When I was a kid I collected baseball cards, but then - what kid didn't back then? Then when I got older I went through a few other obsessions - collecting monster models, brewing beer, re-learning how to play the guitar, playing the harmonica, and on and on! That seems to be what's happening right now with my hand planes, I've somehow begun a nice little collection, and this post is about one of my several hand planes, A Buck Bros. block plane...
The Find
I picked this little plane up at The Tool Box, one of those places that sells old tools that people donate to support senior citizens in the community. Most of the time when I go there I'm not looking for any tool in particular - just looking around to see what I might find. In this case, I picked up a couple nut drivers and, while at the checkout counter, I glanced to my right and saw a plane on a shelf. Out of curiosity, I checked it out and it was a block plane of a design that I didn't have!
Now, I already had a couple block planes...
But a plane for $8? How could I pass it up?
I Thought It Was A Stanley no.220
Not only did I not have this style of plane, I hadn't even seen this type! When I first started researching this plane I thought it was a Stanley #220. But the Stanley's all had a brass knob, and this one had a wood knob attached to the body with a screw. With a little more research I found that this plane is a Buck Bros. Block plane.
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What Is A Block Plane?
A block plane is a small metal-bodied woodworking hand plane which typically has the blade bedded at a lower angle than other planes, with the bevel up. It is designed to cut end grain and do touchup or finish work. It is typically small enough to be used with one hand.
When I travel overseas to work and I have room for only one plane, I bring a block plane because I can easily alter it to do the job of many other tools, including a smoothing plane, miter plane, pencil sharpener, and even a toothing plane. - Christopher Schwartz in Popular Woodworking
Cleanup
One of the nice things about this plane is that it was in pretty good condition, so I took about a minute to take the plane apart and gave each part a good scrubbing.
No big repairs needed to be made of the paint or japanning - there were just a minor chips and a little surface rust on the soul and the sides of the plane and on the iron.
After that I just took some sandpaper to the soul and the sides and using my drama I took the paint off the top of the sides of the plane. Because that's where some of the chipping was. Then I just gave the iron quick sharpening and just like that. The plane was restored. The entire project took maybe 20 minutes from start to finish.
Done!
I like restoring the old planes. It's fun and challenging and at times - tedious, but it's also altogether satisfying and enjoyable. This plane didn't need all that work (20 minutes worth was all), but it was still fun, and I like the way the upper edge of the sides turned out, nice and shiny, much like the edges of the more expensive planes!
Some posts about the flora at 173!
2012 - 2020
∙ Spring is in the air! - April 17, 2012
∙ 173 in bloom 2015! - August 24, 2015
∙ 173 - An impressionistic retrospective - July 24, 2016
∙ 173 in bloom - Spring 2020 - May 21, 2020
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
You might also like some "Shop Oven" posts!
Natural Habitat
I've had this plane since maybe August or September of '22 and I just hadn't gotten around to giving it a good cleanup until now. In the meantime, this block plane has been living in a little space above the small parts storage rack...
But I wanted to have a spot over the bench, and I recently saw a way to add some light shelving to the peg board over the workbench. I inserted a couple L hooks in the back of a 3/4" board...
And I beveled the top back edge of the board to give it space to tilt the hooks into their holes on the pegboard.
This little shelf became the natural habitat of my little block plane!
Thanks for stopping by and - see ya soon!
