Stanley #4 Wood Plane

Bad news, I had never paid much attention to my Stanley #4, which is 1892 to 1902 vintage until now, problem is the frog is broken. Will have to think about this. Is trying to fix this plane worth it or should I simply look for another #4.

                                                        Corrugated Sole is a nice feature

The frog is broken and a replacement frog for this particular plane is scarce

                           The cap and iron are pretty rusty, the iron says "Pat Apl 1892"

                              The Lever Cap has a chip, not a real problem as it is small

Stanley 9 1/2 Block Plane

As part of my Cardiac Rehab, I needed something easy to do to get moving again, as I plan to build a European Work Bench as soon as I get the kitchen done and use my hand planes, I decided to start rehabbing some of my wood working planes.
Not wanting to start on something too difficult, I decided to start on my Stanley 9 1/2 Block plane. Unfortunately I didn't take any before pictures.
That won't happen when I start on my Stanley #4 corrugated sole plane which is next on my list.

                          I didn't repaint it as the original paint is in pretty good shape,
                          I lapped the sides to make them reasonably flat.

I lapped the sole to make it perfectly flat, if you don't do this it will chatter even with the sharpest iron. This block plane had a low spot behind the throat and a spot at both the toe and the heel, plenty of work on wet or dry sand paper (wet, with lots of rinsing of the sand paper to keep it clean) 1st I used 180 grit, then 220 grit, followed by 320 and finally 400, with a good buffing. It is flat now!


                                            
                          Now I need to add some pictures with the resulting shavings.


Update 3-4-12: Sharpened the iron using my DMT Diamond plates. First I flattend the back, then using my Vertitas MK II Honing Guide I sharpened the iron, first I used the DMT Extra Coarse plate to true the blade up, then made a few passes on the Coarse plate before moving to the Fine, then to the Extra Fine, once satisfied with the edge I back beveled the sharpened edge and gave it a try, the picture below is the resulting shavings planing the edge of a piece of Quarter Sawn White Oak. It cut like butter.