Really bad plane restoration

[craigmarshall]

Well - I made some progress on the plane refurb over christmas, I stripped the paint off again. And again. And again (it's stubborn).

Here it is with a couple of coats of black smoothrite paint:



It looks a little more "ripply" than I'd have liked, but I bet when it's covered in grime and sawdust, it'll look fine.

Craig

[benhall]

In the first instance, tools were designed and manufactured to be...yep....tools.
Most were of utilitarian design and were then developed with better ergonomics and more useful features. Some designs were made more simply and in a more elegant manner.
Then they started to be decorated and be made of exotic materials.
Just where the line was crossed between utilitarianism and art is anyone's guess, and the subject of any number of PhD's on Tool history.
As handtools aged and fell out of favour, generally giving way to power tools, there came to be a romantic association made with the beautiful tools, and by extension all those other better quality utilitarian (but not often used) tools as well.
Enter ....the middle classes, with some past association with handtools via family or otherwise, with time on their hands and some spare money.......and .........collecting began.
Can't stop it.
Most woodworkers have a few more tools than they really need, and probably have at least a couple that they never use but just like having around like old friends.
Nothing wrong with this.
I personally think that there are so many good tools out there that even a dyed in the wool utilitarian user only, would have no trouble finding enough tools to get the jobs done, in spite of the numbers of old tools going into collections.
By now you will have guessed, I am both.
I regularly use good tools and I have a tiny collection of old friends.
My Therapist says there's nothing wrong with that, and we've been married for 37 years.
I think that there are enough tools in the world for all of us.
Regards
BH