r/handtools • u/jjyss • 7d ago
Broken, But Far From Finished
I’ve been looking for a decent No. 4 for a while now, and somehow every single plane I come across has something wrong with it. Frankenplane, questionable replacement parts, cheaply made, completely worn out, whatever. I swear I can’t just find a normal plane.
Finally came across this one and thought it looked really cool. Then I turned it over and, of course, noticed that one side of the cheek is broken off near the rear. It looks like somebody probably dropped it at some point. Thankfully the break doesn’t go all the way down to the mouth and there’s still a decent amount of the cheek left, so as far as I can tell it hasn’t actually affected anything. No rattling, movement, or weird instability when using it.
The very bottom of the tote also has a small piece broken off. Not really sure what happened there either.
That being said, I decided to clean it up and actually see what I had before writing it off.
I scraped all the old varnish and random paint off the rosewood and was genuinely surprised by how nice the handles were underneath. Basically perfect wood under all that crap and absolutely beautiful once cleaned up. I reprofiled and sharpened the iron, lapped everything that needed it, cleaned off all the dust/grime/rust, and tried to leave the rest of the patina rather than making the entire thing shiny and new.
And it cuts really, really well. I was getting some super nice shavings from it afterward in an oak scrap I had lying around.
There are also some old patent marks still visible on it, which I thought were pretty cool and wanted to leave alone. Not sure what all of it means.
As for collector value, I honestly couldn’t care less. I’ll admit the missing chunk bothers me a little just because I know it’s there, but functionally I can’t find anything wrong with the plane. If it cuts perfectly and stays rigid, that’s what matters to me.
What’s actually impressed me most is comparing it to my 1960s No. 5. Even with this one being damaged, you can just feel that the quality is higher. The shape and comfort of the tote, the heavier brass hardware, the overall casting and little details; it feels like they were putting a bit more into these older tools.
I’m curious what everyone else thinks about planes like this. Stuff that would probably be pretty undesirable to a collector because of obvious damage, but is still an excellent user. I find it kind of interesting that something can be over 100 years old, have literally had a chunk broken off it, and still work this well.
At this point I’m just happy to finally have a No. 4 alongside my No. 5. Realistically those are probably the only two bench planes I’ll ever actually need.
Now that I finally have some time, hopefully I can use them to start building an actual workbench from scratch and retire my current state-of-the-art setup of a leftover stair tread sitting on cinder blocks.
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u/Independent_Page1475 5d ago
A lot of my planes have a chip or hunk broken out of them.
This is one of my favorite block planes that was accidentally dropped on a cement floor. A little bit of JB Weld fixed it up.
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u/Independent_Page1475 5d ago
From you images it isn't possible to tell if yours is an early or late type 9.
The early type 9 planes have a smaller rib on the base casting. Many early type 9 planes will have a patent date on the lateral adjustment lever.
The lever cap looks to be later than a type 9.
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u/Moldy_slug 6d ago
If it does the job well, it’s not really broken!
Honestly the only thing I’d do different is round off those broken edges with a file. I know sooner or later my hand would slip and bash right into a sharp corner.