My Journey in Writing, Ranting, and Woodworking

There are very few excuses for a late blog piece, which I would consider acceptable. Tonight I have one. As I mentioned yesterday, I traveled to my parents near Des Moines this evening. At around 8:00 I went to see a gentleman who had a massive collection of very old and beautiful hand planes. The blog is late because I got a 2 hour course in the history of some of the finest planes Stanley has ever made. Many of his planes are in original boxes, some of them he has used, all of them were beautiful.

He showed me the #55 Stanley with 100% nickel plating, completely in tact with all cutters and accessories. It was out of my price range, but a joy to behold none the less. We looked at a #45, in the original wooden box with all the cutters and even the screw driver, which I was told, is often missing. Again, beyond my budget for the evening. There were 3 #2 Stanley’s, one of which, he said was the best plane he had ever used. For a man with a collection of this size, that was saying something.

There were all sorts of combo planes and bench scrapers. I can’t begin to remember all the numbers. Many were from before the Cubs last won a World Series. He was so nice, he let me play with a tiny all brass plane, which is designed for cleaning up dados and tenons. It was like magic to use. Even the sound was appealing. It was a plane which he had made. I couldn’t afford to buy it tonight, as there were a couple of others which beat it out, but I will go back and get it in a couple of weeks when I return to Des Moines.

He brought out a bull nose plane. The designs on it were brilliant. I asked if he had used it, and he pointed to the stairs. It worked really well. The best part about my history lesson is that he knew I wanted planes to use, and he helped me choose two good ones. I bought a Stanley 4 1/2, which will require a bit of work, but when it is done, it will be a great plane. I also bought a beautiful #5 with lovely handles, in beautiful shape, that he said is a dream to use. The balance and the weight, even to a novice, were evident. I could have easily spent several thousand dollars tonight, but alas, I didn’t have a couple of thousand, so I bought what I could afford, and then we talked woodworking and I got a tour of his house.

After the tour, he took a look at the planes I had purchased last week. He told me how I was doing with the tuning. It appears I have done a pretty good job thus far, but he gave me a coupe of pointers to make them even better. We also discussed my Jack plane that was in the box. Since I now have two planes which will handle any task which I would have used the Jack plane for, I am pleased to announce that I am NOT going to use it. This will please the people who have written me asking me to please spare this plane from use. I am still not going to sell it to any of these people, as I love it, but I will be keeping it and making sure that it stays in the wonderful shape it is in.

I haven’t been at this very long and to see a home, completely filled with tables, chairs, clocks, a desk, and fireplace mantle, all created by his skilled hands was thrilling. I haven’t mentioned his name, because I think he would prefer that I don’t. But if there are some readers, who are interested in some of his rare and beautiful planes, just drop me an email and I will put you in touch. He even had a really old Stanley #4 (I believe), not only in the original box, which was in remarkable shape, but it had the original tissue paper which it was wrapped in. I can’t remember all the other details, as I am hurriedly trying to get my blog post done and up, to keep my streak of 123 days alive. Which is, I admit, a pretty weak excuse. But I promise to make it up, by taking some pictures tomorrow. Ok, now I am going to go look at my purchases, and smile a bit.