Stanley No. 4½

Tool Restoration: Stanley No. 4½

The finished plane reassembled.

For this project, I show all the of the steps that I took to restore an English Stanley No. 4½ Jumbo Smoothing Plane. I bought the plane on eBay UK and paid the equivalent of about $20.

The series ended up being 4 posts, so I have put them all here to make them easier to access. Click on the title of each to read the post:

The complete breakdown.Part 1 – Teardown and Cleaning

The plane is disassembled, cleaned, and polished.

 

 

The first (and hardest) round of fettling all done.Part 2 – Fettling the Body & Frog

The sole, sides, and frog are flattened.

 

 

I reinstalled the frog hardware that was cleaned earlier in the process.Part 3 – Painting 

The body and frog are painted with high temp ceramic engine enamel and then baked.

 

 

I took it outside to show how the wood looks in the daylight.Part 4 – Iron & Wood

The iron is sharpened, the chip breaker tuned and polished, and the wooden handles refinished.  There’s also lots of “After” photos.

 

I hope that you have enjoyed this series.  Thanks for reading.