Acoustic Guitar Construction

Inspired by the posts of Dave and Kevin, I thought I should give my plane a cleaning and tune-up. I had already done a little truing of the sole and sharpened up the iron, but this time I meant business. {cue dramatic music}

So this is the story of this plane: (Source - http://www.handplane.com)
Stanley Rule and Level Co. No. 27 Jack Plane
Manufactured: 1869 to 1917
Length: 15 inches
Blade Width: 2-1/8 inches
Construction: Cast iron frame, beech base, handle & knob
Finish: Japanned frame, lacquered wood parts
Features: Wood base
Uses: General purpose bench plane

Wow! It's pretty cool to be using a tool that was made a hundred years ago. Makes you wonder what it might have been used to build, by whom, and all that. With a little more research I may be able to narrow down the year it was made.



Here are the 'before' photos.

I took it all apart and sanded the body down to the bare metal which wasn't hard as the paint was mostly flaked off.

I painted the metal parts, except for the iron, which I polished up and sharpened the edge.
I flattened the sole and squared up the sides, using another plane. It does a respectable job as a shooting plane now, or can be used for general plane work. I was able to get a 3' long strip of .0015" thick shaving without any problem.
Edit - I forgot to mention that I applied some tung oil to the bare wood.

Let's give those old-timey planes another chance!

Thanks Dave, you have encouraged me to get on with cleaning mine up and making them more useful! Especially since Kevin has backed out of doing it. :-)

That is a sweet plane Dave. I also have one of the transitionals I need to work on. It is a 24" jointer and in really good shape.
I was going to tune it and see if it would work flattening the top on the bench I'm making, but I didn't get to it and just used a jack plane.

I love these really old tools and it is fun to bring them back to use.