Restoring a Hand Plane

Hand Plane Restored!

Success! I watched this Paul Sellers' tutorial on restoring a hand plane I bought off eBay, and it worked! I went for a Stanley Bailey #5 hand plane, per the recommendation from the tutorial. It is solid steel and  basically indestructible. I found this plane totally rusted and with a bright thumb spot where the previous owner must have had some cyan paint on his gloves. The blade was nicked and the shellac on the wood was cracked and discolored. I'll go over the process of how I restored it in a weekend!

Edit: I did some research and discovered that this plane was made somewhere between 1948-1961! Super old!

Supplies

Hand plane (you can find this on eBay or anywhere online)

3 n 1 oil (any hardware store has this)

Shellac (I went with amber but that's your call)

Brush (any paint brush willl work but it'll probably not be reusable)

Rags (I got 6 for $4 at Target!)

Wire brush (you just need this to get the rust off the screws)

Steel wool #0000

Sandpaper - 120 and 220 grit (can get it from Amazon or a hardware store)

Sharpening stones - 400 800 1200 grit (something like this)

Gloves (helps keep the hands clean!)

Just a whole bunch of rust waiting to shine

Step 0.5

Watch the whole Paul Sellers' tutorial! He goes into better detail than I will and he has so much knowledge about tools and the whole process. He's a great resource for anything related to woodworking. Don't forget to take note of how old this tool looks, as it will soon look brand new!

Step 1

I would put on gloves now. Also make sure you either don't care about your working surface or you can protect it somehow. It WILL get covered in rust, steel and wood dust. Take off the blade to keep it from being scratched, then sand all the rust off the bottom and the sides. This takes a while and you need to make sure you keep the bottom of the sole flat. If that warps, you won't plane correctly. I would go ahead and remove all rust from all steel components. Take everything apart, you're going to do that soon anyway.

Before and after sanding the sides with sand paper

Step 2

Scrape all the old finish off the wood. This works if you use the side of a chisel, or any sharp steel. Make sure you don't gouge the wood, then sand it softly.

Step 3

Apply the new Shellac and oil all moving pieces. I did 3 coats of Shellac with about an hour of HBO GO in between. No need to rush. Steel wool and some oil will help smooth the shellac once it dries completely.

Ready to plane!

Photo Transfers on to Wood

Transfer Photos on to Wood (or anything else probably)

After buying some creations from local craft fairs, I set out to make awesome photo tranfers! I did my research and settled on two different methods: Mod Podge method  and Wood Burning method.

Required Materials:

Wood to transfer to (can be a different medium)

Printed image(s) to transfer (use a laser jet printer)

Sandpaper

Patience

Mod Podge Method:

Mod Podge Photo Transfer Medium

Bone Folder

Mod Podge Sealer

Wood Burner Method:

Wood Burning Tool

Infrared Thermometer (Suggested)

Shared Steps:

Sand the wood! The smoother the better because bumps WILL show through the transferred ink.

Pick and print your design. PRINT EXTRAS!

Cut your design out. Try to be as accurate as possible and pick a simpler shape than I did. :)

Here is where the steps diverge. I'll go over Mod Podge then the Wood Burner.

Mod Podge Steps:

Cover the INK SIDE of the paper in Mod Podge Photo Transfer Medium. You can cover the wood instead but I've found covering the paper to be a little cleaner in the end. Both ways work.

Use your bone folder to flatten out the paper then clean up any excess that leaks out.

Let it dry for AT LEAST 8 hours.

Wet the paper with a towel or paper towel. Get it pretty wet but not dripping. Then go to town with your towel or fingers to rub away the paper. Be careful not to remove the ink! I did that and you can see the results.

Voila! Your fish turns into a tree! The full paper turned out better than the fish shape. You can see the spots where the uneven wood affected the outcome, as well as where I rubbed away the ink. Learning curve!

Use a brush to apply the Mod Podge Sealer. I went with a matte finish to make it less shiny. Feel free to do multiple coats!

Admire your work! :)

Wood Burner Steps:

Heat up your wood burner with a flat tip attached. Turn the paper INK SIDE DOWN and run the flat tip across the paper. Be careful not to burn the wood! I never use my wood burner without an infrared thermometer! EVER!

The bottom image is the result of the Wood Burner transfer. The above fish is me testing some pyrography with the different tips that came with the wood burner tool.

The same tree picture as the Mod Podge method. Note the burned circle by the trunk.

It's a learning process, what did I learn?

The Mod Podge process is MUCH slower than the wood burning process. Unless I did Mod Podge wrong, the wood burner seems to be better for outlines while the Mod Podge is better for full images. That being said, you can control how much ink is transferred when using the wood transfer method, but not with the Mod Podge. Both approaches make good cheap present ideas that can be thoughtful and personalized for the gift recipient. 

Next step, CANVAS!