Restoring The Rapier Plane

A friend recently gave me a bag with a bundle of goodies inside that needed cleaning up.

Among them was this Rapier plane that as you can see is looking rather old and warn.

I took it a part and had a good look at what work needed to be done before I started. Using some sand paper, a paint brush and a small screwdriver I carefully removed all of the dust, muck and rust.

As you can see it slowly started coming back to life and resembling it’s former glory.

I could tell I was making good progress when the Rapier sign started to show through again!

Carefully removing the last bits of muck from the blade with a file and all that was left to do was go over the whole plane with the paintbrush again.

After I had meticulously brushed away any remaining dirt from all of the crevices the plane was looking a lot better and the last thing I did was rub WD40 into all of the metal work.

Now I have to admit I slightly forgot how everything went back together again after I had taken it all apart so if there are any bits that need changing around please feel free to point it out. All in all not a bad job and the only thing that really needs work on now is sharpening the blade