Diamond Edge Planes
#30
(12-19-2017, 03:45 PM)Rick Barton Wrote: Jack, didn't Shapleigh also market Keen Kutter tools?

The keen kutter tools were marketed by E.C. Simmons (Simmons Hardware) until 1940, when it was bought out by Agustus Shapleigh (Shapleigh Hardware). Shapleigh hardware closed in the early 1960'. The Keen Kutter and Diamond Edge name was sold to Val Test of Chicago who still owns those rights today.
BAT

A man wearing a helmet defending our nation should make more money than a man wearing a helmet playing games!
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#31
(12-21-2017, 12:24 AM)Bobby Thompson Wrote: The keen kutter tools were marketed by E.C. Simmons (Simmons Hardware) until 1940, when it was bought out by Agustus Shapleigh (Shapleigh Hardware). Shapleigh hardware closed in the early 1960'. The Keen Kutter and Diamond Edge name was sold to Val Test of Chicago who still owns those rights today.

Thanks for the information, Bobby.
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#32
(12-19-2017, 10:20 AM)UpstateNYdude Wrote: Or it could just cut down on the grunt work someone might not be interested in doing? Not everyone wants to derust, wire wheel or lap a plane body and polish up screws and brass. The hand plane isn't a mystical being, its complexities aren't mind altering, adjusting frog screws, depth adjuster and a lateral adjuster are something that can be learned from a 5-10 minute YouTube video. Being able to feel and see the correct adjustment isn't going to be learned by setting the tool up or cleaning it, only by use will you gain that knowledge and opening that shipping box gets to that point faster (especially if you don't have the time to garage sale hunt all day everyday).

Please stop posting this bologna in every thread about planes. If anything cleaning up a plane is more likely to turn someone off than onto them, and sharpening the blade is 90% of what really matters.

Guys, I just love to do restorations and do things I haven't done before. This is a just a hobby. I restored the surface grinder that I am using. My plans are to restore these and line most of them up on the wall. I have to agree that restoring a user is not necessary. As for painting, I think that our ancestors would have painted them if they had the paints we use today. High quality paints just weren't available. The same goes for equipment. No electricity on job sites made hand tools necessary. If a contractor had electricity, circular saws and handsaws, what would he use? I have a great admiration for the work that they did with the only tools they had. Several years ago, I visited the cemetery where my grandfather is buried (he died at age 32) and a elderly gentleman took me down the road to a church that doubled as a school house. The building had no nails in it. All joints were secured with wooden pegs that the carpenter had made. It was amazing. Unfortunately it burned a few years later. My point is our ancestors did a lot with these old tools. I love to make them look new again. I also agree that some should be left as they are and restoring would devalue the tool. I hope that you guys are doing something that you love to do. I lived on a farm and started work early in my life. By the age of 10, I was driving tractors in the hay fields. I have spent most of my life working and supporting a family. Life is too short to miss out on some of the things we love.
BAT

A man wearing a helmet defending our nation should make more money than a man wearing a helmet playing games!
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#33
yep, for most people out there, restore is sometimes to only way to get tools for the shop.  And, the effort one puts into the restore, while not all the much, tends to make that tool "belong " to the new owner.   "Sweat Equity"?  

Have had to "restore" planes and other tools since the late 1980s.....could be I have learned a thing or two about how to get them to work?
Over the past two years, or so, I have tried out quite a few brands of tools, keeping what fits the way my shop operates, selling others that I restored...to buy other tools. 

Lee Valley?   Just some out-of-the-way Mail Order House to me.....Woodcraft?   50-90 miles away, to the closest store....Cost more  to drive there.  Plus all the normal monthly bills?    Just makes sense to me to just restore a few tools....and put them to use.  Besides, I can use what is leftover from the rust hunt funds..to buy lumber.    What good is a high priced plane, IF you haven't anything left to buy the lumber to put that tool to work on?   Wife buys enough trinkets to sit on the shelves around the house.
Show me a picture, I'll build a project from that
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#34
(12-22-2017, 11:47 AM)bandit571 Wrote: yep, for most people out there, restore is sometimes to only way to get tools for the shop.  And, the effort one puts into the restore, while not all the much, tends to make that tool "belong " to the new owner.   "Sweat Equity"?  

Have had to "restore" planes and other tools since the late 1980s.....could be I have learned a thing or two about how to get them to work?
Over the past two years, or so, I have tried out quite a few brands of tools, keeping what fits the way my shop operates, selling others that I restored...to buy other tools. 

Lee Valley?   Just some out-of-the-way Mail Order House to me.....Woodcraft?   50-90 miles away, to the closest store....Cost more  to drive there.  Plus all the normal monthly bills?    Just makes sense to me to just restore a few tools....and put them to use.  Besides, I can use what is leftover from the rust hunt funds..to buy lumber.    What good is a high priced plane, IF you haven't anything left to buy the lumber to put that tool to work on?   Wife buys enough trinkets to sit on the shelves around the house.

Ah yes, exactly....

In the beginning it was a choice to have a number of different planes and chisels and spokeshaves and whatever I wanted, instead of a few new tools.  There was always the cost of new tools vs rehabbing the old tools threads going on here, and I chimed in where appropriate.  I probably said a few things I shouldn't..

Then one day work picked up several years ago and I haven't had the time to work on rehabbing since.  But I took those I had not rehabbed and traded them for a few in good condition up at Lynn's in Garland and have now settled down to my users.  Not a new tool in the bunch.  I do get supplies from LV and Woodcraft occasionally, and will pick up a trinket or two while I'm in there, but no expensive new planes, chisels, etc.

Frankly, I have 3 or 4 different planes, chisels, etc. I use all the time, and about 85% of the rest never or rarely get used.  Mine looks a lot like Bandit's collection above..
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#35
I have a DE #7 and I thought it was Sargeant made. I haven’t looked at it in a while though.

I think restoring your user planes to the condition you like is a fine choice if you choose. Back in the day, a past member Rarebear restored, tuned, and sold many planes right here. They were a hot commodity and I wanted all of my wild found users to sing on wood and gleam to the eye. Well....I did a few and soon found that flattening plane soles quickly became plain ol’ work. I’ve also done complete restorations on a nice saw vise, Wilton machinist vise and countless wood chisels. That said, all I was doing was restoration of tools and no woodworking. Now, I simply get an old tool clean and tuned if it stays in my shop as a user.

I’m still glad I did invest that time when I was younger as I quickly learned how to troubleshoot a poorly functioning plane and I also got a great deal of practice using them. Of course my sharpening skills were nicely honed and that’s a skill that every woodworker inspiring to do fine work should invest in. It’s one of the first things I tell inspiring woodworkers to learn.


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#36
During "Downtime" between projects....I can spend a day in the shop, restoring any of the old tools I find while on Rust Hunts. 
Has gotten to the point, that a complete restore of a handplane MIGHT take 2 hours..tops.  Some I will resell, some I gift to others that stop by for a visit to the shop.  Being Retired...have all the time I need in the shop.    Just a way to pass the time, for me.....besides, I can spend the "Big Bucks" not on fancy, new in box tools....but mainly on lumber to actually use my tools.  

Those same restored tools are featured in the "Build Threads" I tend to post here.   I put them to work, like they were meant to be.
Show me a picture, I'll build a project from that
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#37
(12-30-2017, 09:30 AM)bandit571 Wrote: Just a way to pass the time, for me.....besides, I can spend the "Big Bucks" not on fancy, new in box tools....but mainly on lumber to actually use my tools.  

Over the years, I've picked up several LV and LN tools; back in the 90s when the vintage tool market was pretty hot, you'd spend $175 for a pair of Stanley 98/99 side rabbet planes, which was sort of crazy in my mind, so I paid a bit more and got the LNs, and never regretted it.  Same with the #48, back then the vintage ones were pricey as hell, so I got me the LN version.  I've since had and used vintage ones, but found the LN versions to be so much more usable.  Another is the LN 102/103, much better planes.  And since LN has raised their prices over the years, if I ever sell one I'd likely sell them for almost as much as I paid for them.  So do keep your eye out for some of the modern makers and treat yourself, they come up for sale here from time to time (and most of the time, without boxes, so you won't be breaking your box rule!).
Credo Elvem ipsum etiam vivere
Non impediti ratione cogitationis
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#38
Already have all the planes I need.
Cool    Just spent $30 on 32bf of 4/4 Ash....was about all of the budget.
Rolleyes   Quite happy with the tools I already have.    Took a while, but finally they all fit what I do in my shop....YMMV.
Winkgrin
Show me a picture, I'll build a project from that
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