Stumbled on a blog about restoring old hand planes

Guy in r/woodworking mentioned this tiny blog called 'Plane Chatter'. The author restores old Stanley planes. Like pre-1900 ones. I followed his method for flattening a No. 5 sole I grabbed at a flea market. Used wet-dry sandpaper on a granite tile instead of a machine. Took 45 minutes but the thing actually cuts perfect shavings now. Anyone else found niche blogs like that that actually teach one specific skill?

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mia_fox984mo ago

Funny you mention that, my old man actually told me about a site called 'The English Woodworker' that had a whole series on setting up a wooden jack plane. Took me like three tries to get the chipbreaker right. Those old blogs really dig into the tiny details nobody talks about in modern tutorials.

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viola_cooper624mo ago

Spent a whole weekend trying to get mine set up and ended up with a chipbreaker so tight I couldn't get the cap iron back on without a hammer. The old guy's blog was great but my fingers were too clumsy for those fine adjustments. Three tries sounds about right for me too, I think I took about five before I finally gave up and just used a block plane instead.

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