re: Opening scene: Rescued from the back shelves.

Read up on electrolysis so that you can clean the chipper and blade WITHOUT losing as much metal to rust. Works great and its cheap to do with a 12v car battery charger.

As far as the wood, I don’t know what you have as far as your mouth opening. Old planes often have been used so much that their mouths open up and will no longer make fine shavings. That said, the mouth can either be repaired by inlaying a piece of hardwood to close the mouth up some, OR you could elect to recreate a NEW body. Your wege looks good and could probably be reused.

As hard as this may look, consider making a laminated body. The center portion has all the angles cut into it, AND THEN the outer pieces are laminated into place to close up the body. When all is done, you will have a “new” old plane.

BTW, is that an old Auburn Thistle Brand blade I see?