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Saw something wild at an old house restoration in Portland last weekend
I was helping a buddy on a Victorian restoration over in the Irvington neighborhood and we had to match some crown molding that was from the 1890s. The homeowner had this ancient wooden molding plane that his great grandpa used and I figured it would be junk but the dude let me try it out. I mean, the profile it cut was actually cleaner than my new Stanley plane I paid $80 for. The secret was he kept the blade sharp with a wet stone and used the original setup with the fence and depth stop. It made me realize I rely too much on power tools when sometimes the old way just works better with old growth wood. Has anyone else messed around with hand planes on restoration jobs and noticed a difference?
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jade_butler5d ago
Hold up, are we really acting like a 130 year old hand plane is some kind of revelation? I've used plenty of old tools on restorations and half the time they're just beat up and impossible to adjust. The wood was probably just denser back then, not magic from the blade. You could get the same clean cut with a cheap modern plane if you actually took the time to sharpen it right and set the depth stop. Your $80 Stanley plane is probably just fine if you fiddle with it for an hour. Sounds more like you got lucky with a well maintained antique than proving some grand point about old vs new tools.
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