I’m noticing a trend as of late, when these Eclipse planes arrive… it’s always nasty outside and rainy.
But it’s here, arrived way ahead of schedule and I got her for a sweet price so I’m thrilled with this little poster child for the American Hand Plane Society… won’t you donate now to help save this hand plane from abuse and neglect? Lol. That’s actually how I got the wife in on buying it, the poor thing has a thread spool for a front knob of all things.
So it’s already been broken down and I’ve already cleaned up the lever cap and chip breaker and blued them. If I’m to it I’ll get more work done it tomorrow and hopefully shoot a video of the bluing process with the Formula 44/40 Instant Gun Blue.
Here’s the pics of the plane as I found it on eBay:
This is the Eclipse 1203 hand plane sold by Montgomery Ward and Co.. It’s a lower quality version of the more famous Stanley No. 3. The Eclipse line is the same as the Defiance line except the blades are typically stamped with Eclipse. Similar to the Defiance line there’s really nothing to tell these were made by Stanley.
UPDATE 3-6-2020: Despite being under the weather I was able to kick back and work on this little girl for a while today and it’s looking REALLY sharp now. All that’s left is to finish the tote and knob and she’ll be a stunner for sure.
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