My Journey in Writing, Ranting, and Woodworking

When the day began one man woke with thoughts of antique hand planes waiting to be discovered, the other of fish.  Bass in particular.  One headed to the antique mall and poured over a hand full of old planes, none of which caught his eye.  They were damaged, missing parts, or were simply produced by inferior companies.

The other guy had better luck with rod and reel, for he caught the largest bass of his life.  10 pounds, and there is photo proof, though we don’t have it available for the blog.  Sorry.  If one were to guess where these two people’s paths might cross, it is unlikely that they would have picked, ‘Standing in an art gallery in West Des Moines, looking at a $300,000 Picaso.’

That is where I ran across my friend Bryce.  I haven’t seen Bryce in several years, the last time being in Iowa City.  I believe I was wearing a Santa Suit at the time, and had been drinking enough vodka to make my nose redder than Rudolph’s.  I am not much of a drinker, but every few years, I will join the 150+ people who go on the Santa Pub crawl.  The crawl has been going on for over 20 years.  I believe they had the ‘What happens on the Santa Pub crawl, stays on the Santa Pub crawl, well before Vegas did.’  So there will not be any further mention of it.

It was good to see Bryce.  I also enjoyed my day out.  I would imagine I spent around 4 hours pouring through various antique stores, and though I did see several planes, none of them were of the quality that my new discerning tastes would accept.  It is ok.  I still had fun.  There was even a slight feeling of satisfaction at having resisted the temptation to buy some inferior planes, with the thought that maybe I could save them.

There were two purchases which I passed up, which I am not sure if I made the right decision.  So tonight I would like to describe them, and perhaps the readers could give me their feedback.  There was a Stanley 45, which was not in the same pristine condition as the one I saw last night.  It didn’t have the original box, all the extra stuff, and wasn’t quite as nice.  It was in reasonable condition though, the handle looked to be in good shape.  It was priced at $65.00.  This is many hundreds less than the one from last night, so it really isn’t comparing apples to apples.  My question is, should I have picked it up?  I just don’t know.

The second item I didn’t pull the trigger on, was a fairly low risk $5.00 purchase.   It was an old Stanley socket chisel.  I am well aware of the quality of old Stanley planes, but I can’t recall reading anything about their chisels.  It occurred to me that it might be cool to turn a nice handle for the chisel and replace the old one.  I imagined using an exotic wood and ending up with a bright and shiny chisel.  I reminded myself that I don’t know how to use a lathe, or own a lathe, two issues that would greatly impede my ability to complete such a project.

My feeling is that the old chisel should have probably been purchased because of it’s price, even if it wasn’t good steel.  I am not able to say if I should run back and get the 45 or not.  That is where you, the reader come in.  Tonight’s daily question, which I work diligently to add to my blog 1 to 3 times per month, is ‘Should I buy the Stanley 45?’  Because I realize that everyone is busy, I am making this a multiple choice question.

1)  Should Brian return and buy the Stanley 45?

a.  Yes

b.  No, it is overpriced.

c.  No, it is grotesquely overpriced, you would bring shame to your family and likely lose the respect of every woodworker within a 200 mile radius of the antique mall where you saw it.  What was the name of that antique mall again…and the address…are they open on Sundays?…but definitely, you don’t want to buy it.

d. I refuse to answer your silly question.

e.  All of the above.