Mending a Plane's Tote & Knob: A Galoots Approach.

Sometimes, when you buy in a bundle, you get sorry looking tools like this.

and of course,

The tote has been dismembered into 3 portions, with the top horn missing. The knob has a befitting chunk gone too.

If these were beech wood, and the breaks are clean, I would have used hide glue, applied with a rubbed joint.

(A rubbed joint is this: Glue applied to 2 FLAT surface, surface is then RUBBED together, and left to dry. Clamps not required as drying hide-glue pulls joint together tightly)

Unfortunately, the previous owner of this plane continued to (savagely) use the plane in its broken-handled state, such that the joints were mashed and no long fit tight.Add to that, Rosewood is oily by nature: I resorted to epoxy. So, I flattened all mating surface with a metal file, and added the rosewood powder thus generated into the epoxy mix. (My attempt to colour the epoxy) This is just an experiment. You can see that my apprehensive and timid dosage of rosewood dust did little to colour the otherwise clear epoxy ("Araldite 5 minutes Rapid"). Which is just as well;Too much rosewood dust added = reduced joint strength.

Let them oooooze out, no worries here. They can serve to fill the uneven joint gaps.

Some careful carving, some shaping with a file, some sanding, and some steel wool later. (Note that the donor wood is some dense, tropical hardwood ; It's too pale to match the rosewood)

I used whatever stain I have at hand to improve the aesthetics. Scrubbed and rubbed in with a cotton swab (aka.Q-tip.)

Doesn't dye too well. Maybe a second coat followed by lacquer to seal it.

Remember to uncover the partially covered bolt recess.

Similarly, the knob get its patch. (Teak wood this time)

Next up,

In the next post, I will put up a pictorial on mending cast iron. Cast iron warps like crazy, and cracks easily if not properly pre-heated before welding or sufficiently cooled thereafter. Maybe I'll take up a 2 year apprenticeship in a weld/machinist shop. (Or maybe I'll just accept that some things are better used as paperweights or doorstops.)

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