Rust Hunting in Georgia 2014.04.12

It's been a while since I've posted - it's also been fairly slim pickings lately. This is a roundup of several months culminating in April of 2014.

Most of the items above I found at an estate sale - it was highly advertized and there were many people picking over the large hand tool collection. As usual I went for the less popular, less expensive items. Of particular note are these two routers - the mini I got for $5 and the larger (which is a nicely done patter-maker's router - no idea what I'll do with it as it's huge) was $25. Everything was also discounted about 40% so it was all fairly cheap. I've been looking for a Stanley corner brace for a while and this one works fine.

The handsaw is interesting in the way the nuts bind (they protrude and are quite sturdy - also the reinforcing plate). About $5 at Goodwill of all places.

And finally this trio of planes - two knuckles and one rabbit mouth (no cracks on the latter).

That's it for this installment. With my current work load I'm just not getting out as much as before. I hope to remedy that this year.

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia 2013.01.17

Both the sales and the local finds on rusty tools have rather dried-up for me as of late so I've been slow to post. The items today are actually from a couple of sources, both a local sale and a nearby junk shop - as usual the prices were extremely cheap as I'm truly a bottom-feeder (as I've noted before).

In the photo above you'll see two files at the top along with an awl in the lower left and a small flat file. I picked all those up at an estate sale. I really got them for the handles more than anything - something about a brass ferrule and old-fashioned turning that does it for me. Also, I've found that you can never have too many handles. Less than $5 bucks so super cheap.

The rest was found at my favorite junk shop and probably most of you would have passed on the bulk, especially the mechanic's tools.

The Husky 1/2" ratchet caught my eye as it was so well made - I've found you can never have too many of these - seems like I lay them down and can't remember where I've left it, so having extras is a good thing. This one has an interesting rotating direction lock - not sure of the era but before they were available at Home Depot for sure.

I'm a sucker for good quality Craftsman tools (interestingly, it's my understanding that much of the mechanics tools marked and sold by Sears as Craftsman were produced by Husky so there's a theme here) - these box-end wrenches are great for tight areas and were too cheap to pass up. The nut driver at the top is MAC and the little punches are great for tiny pins or nails - also too cheap to pass up.

The last thing I found was the Millers Falls tempered rule - it has a little edge corrosion but should clean up fine - this is another one of those things you can't have too many of - a good accurate rule with easy-to-read marks - invaluable in the shop.

I've found just a handful of other things which I'll roll forward into another post.

-- John

Seldon Bailey No 5 Patent Plane

If you've been following along, you know I managed to pick up an unusual metal hand-plane at a local yard sale. I posted about this in my last blog post, however for convenience here are a few images:

Group of Items found 2012.10.06

Plane as found

I only had a few facts to go on:

1. The plane body is unmarked
2. Tote and knob are both rosewood
3. The blade adjuster has an unusual raising feature.
4. There's an extra cap which is secured via a cam-lock lever
5. The blade is marked "Bailey Tool Co" in an arch across the cutter, with a medieval looking axe and Patent 1871 beneath.

Knob view

In any case, I posted the images above to the old tool group to see if I could fine out any more info. I suspected from my own searches that this plane was an early Leonard Bailey plane. I received a couple of replies identifying the plane but the best answer I received was from tool collector Josh Clark who wrote:

John-

 

Yup, it's a Bailey Tool Co. jack plane all correct and proper and actually in not too bad condition. This plane was made in Woodsocket, RI by Seldon Bailey & Co., not Leonard, though Leonard did get involved at some point ca. 1878 and the whole thing gets confusing. You can see the various patents for the plane here: http://datamp.org/patents/search/xrefCompany.php?id=534  If you have an interest in mechanical stuff, the blade adjusting mechanism is really cool- it's a work drive that has a very very fine adjustment tolerance, much finer than a standard Stanley plane. Cool stuff. Nice find.

 

Josh

So this blog post is basically about taking some detailed photos and getting them online (I found one photo of a similar plane, a number 4, that was shown on a For Sale page but marked as sold).

I very carefully dissembled the plane to give it a good cleaning, using only mineral spirits:

Here are some details shots of the blade adjusting mechanism:

And here's a short video of the way it works:

The other unusual feature of the plane is the cam-lock mechanism:

And here's another short video showing how it works:

Additional photos of the cleaned plane:

I received a suggestion from Josh that I might want to repair the tote (it had been badly glued together at the crack at some point and the rod would hardly pass the off-set). I undertook to use something that was reversible, in case at some point someone wanted to do a different repair, so I used a black super glue I found online, reasoning that a bit of acetone would break the repair if necessary.

I did just a little light sanding then added some shellac to approximate the sheen on the knob. Here are photos of the completed plane with just a little more cleaning an a light coat of paste wax:

That's about it. I hope I've managed to add to the knowledge-pool regarding the Seldon Bailey plane.

Here's a site that shows images of other Seldon Bailey planes (sold):
http://www.quietcornerantiques.com/id71.html

And here's some additional info from the Old Tools Archive:
http://swingleydev.com/archive/get.php?message_id=226226&submit_thread=1

Thanks! John

Rust Hunting in Georgia 2012.10.06

I had only found a couple of items between my last post and this past Saturday:

I think I've got less than $2 in the three items above - the mallet is made of oak and quite stout. I also look for wood handled putty knives and scrapers - some of the earlier examples that I've found have rosewood handles (this one is more modern in vintage - I bought it as a user). The small file holder - that's about 3 or 4 of those I've found over the years. You can place an awl (or make one from a nail) or small file into it - very useful. The end is padded so it's ideal for small, homemade chisels (if you've ever done any micro carving in hardwood you'll know what I mean).

This second lot I found over the weekend - I was leaving for my woodworking club meeting (The Gwinnett Woodworkers Association: www.gwinnettwoodworkers.com - if you're ever in Atlanta early Saturday come on by, we meet at Peachtree Woodworking Supply. I also edit and upload class videos to our YouTube channel if you'd like to see what the meetings are like: http://www.youtube.com/user/gwinnettwoodworkers) when I spotted a yard sale sign. I turned around figuring I had a few minutes. The neighbor had a pile of rusty tools on a table to the rear. He told me that they had belonged to his grandfather and had been kicking around for many years getting rusted up, and it was time to get rid of them. I won't tell you how much I paid, suffice to say we both walked away happy.

Included were two intact planes - one about a Number 5 size and a Number 48 match plane missing the swinging fence on the bottom. Also in the photo below are some parts for a tap-and-die set, a Yankee screwdriver and a drill-bit sharpening attachment for a grinder.

Here are the two all metal planes:

Also included were these two braces and a super-thin draw knife. Note the rosewood pad and handle on the larger brace. I couldn't find a manufacturer but the chuck is massive and I'm sure it's very old.

There was also an axe head, a circle bit, a saw set and a couple of large machinist clamps...

And finally a spokeshave (probably Stanley - that's what's on the cutter), a divider, couple of punches and some large safety pins (thinking these are for canvass).

The best thing of course was the hand plane. I couldn't see any markings until I got home - It's marked Bailey Tool Co with an 1871 patent date on the blade and features a cam-lock mechanism. Quite old I think, with rosewood tote and knob:

Love the balloon knob and the blade raiser is very interesting. I tried to do some research on it but wasn't able to find out much - no photos at all except for a rendering on the patent. I'll clean it up a bit and post more about it in another post.

-- John