Hand planes have an ancient history. The oldest hand plane on record was recovered from Pompeii, coated in volcanic ash and a little under 2,000 years old. While I’ve never come across one quite that old myself, it’s not uncommon to find planes that were produced almost a century ago, if not even earlier. And many of them show it.
I’ve always been impressed by restoration projects, whether it’s cars, houses, tractors or hand planes. In the last couple of years, I’ve come by a few fixer-upper planes at bargain prices. I’ve found that restoring them to their former glory can be a great workshop project. This toration project is on a Stanley No. 26 resplane, with a beat-up wood body, plenty of rusty castings, a broken horn on its handle and a chipped out mouth. There’s plenty to be done.
FIXING UP THE BODY
To begin, I disassembled the plane, removing the handle, the knob and the castings. I chose to start by cleaning up the
