Project Working

What would you do the night before the last exam of your degree program? 

Restore a tool?

What a coincidence, me too.

I went back to my parents house this past weekend for the first time in over a year. Between their house and their furniture they live among quite a lot of wood. I found myself unable to ignore the construction of most everything I came across during my stay there. They have accumulating a number of older objects from their own parents things, among them a tool chest that has been passed down from father to son along my fathers line. This past visit wasnt the first time I had seen this chest or its content at my folks home, but I guess Ive learned quite a bit about old hand tools since my last examination. I knew what pretty much everything was. Take this beast, for example:

It was not too long ago that I would have had no idea what in the world this was, so I was quite proud of myself for knowing a scraper plane when I saw one. This is a Stanley #12 Scraper Plane. According to the Stanley Bible, this tool is no younger than 63 years old, but probably older. It is missing its handle and scraper blade, but the handle is easily made and the scraper is cheaply procured.

So I wrapped it in an old shirt and flew it back down to Tucker for a little TLC. I was shocked TSA didnt hassle me.

I made pretty good progress on the body tonight:

I got the vast majority of rust off it and polished the brass up a little bit too. Im probably going to replace those nasty screws that hold the handle on--at least they werent stripped Philips. Well see the making of a new handle in the coming days. 

Until then, wish me luck tomorrow at 11:30.