More sand

LeLand Coles is Laura's great-grandfather.  Leland was born June 17, 1913 in Bothwell Utah.  Bothwell is a very small community about 20 miles north and a bit west of Brigham City were Laura and I grew up.  I'm guessing that he may have been born at home as there is no hospital (that I know of) in Bothwell.  Here's a bit of history of that part of the world: http://www.boxeldercounty.org/bothwell-history.htm

The 1920 census shows that he lived with his family in the Rawlins Precinct in Box Elder County.  I'm assuming that is the area of Bothwell.  It listed his father as a farmer, but then the 1930 census showed that Leland lived with his family in Harrisville Utah, his father again listed as a farmer.

Leland married Laura Urry July 16, 1935.  If this blog thing works, you should be able to see the full size image of his marriage application.  It lists that his occupation is 'Dairyman' and lived in Sunset Utah.  The 1940 census puts him in Bingham County Idaho. 

There are lots of holes to fill in this story, more to come.... Laura just handed me a typed oral history of his life.  Time to get reading!  More on that next time.

Back to work on the plane.

I decided to use Dykem to help me find the peaks and valleys.  It's nearly the same thing as PVC primer, but more blue and it's supposed to be more durable on metal.

After a few minutes of sanding with 80 grit, the front part is starting to flatten out and I've nearly removed the concaved bit in the back.  It's hard to see the blue in the picture, but its there.

After a while longer, the Dykem isn't visible, but you can still see the worst areas of pitting at the front and a just a tiny bit of pitting in the back.... slowly getting there.

Got bored with the sole and moved to the cheeks.  Dykem shows my low spots.  Turns out this goes much faster when you don't have such a large surface area to work.  Even most of the large gouges came right out. 

Not too shabby!  Note, this process tends to go fastest when you consume liberal amounts of Otter Pops, Fred Meyer store brand are by far the best.

The other side needed lots more work with that really large gouge.  Not quite as clean as the other side, but it will do.

Time for a sanding break.  Time to strip off the old japaning and what I think is shellac on the handles.

 Apply liberal amounts of stripper to all the painted/coated surfaces. 

Scrub with wire brush.  Realize you should be wearing eye protection.  On you way to get your fancy safety googles, realize that you have flicked stripper all over your legs and it now burns.  Alot.  After rinsing your hands and legs with water, get your solvent resistant gloves on.  Safety first.

 The handles had a real thick layer of very yellowy goopy finish.  It looked just like shellac flakes before you melt them in solvent.  With all of it removed, the wood looks pretty good.  It will just need a light sanding to get out some of the minor scratches.

But the wood is very porous, so I'll have to think about how I'm going to finish them.  I'd like to not use modern finishes. I read that the handles are probably rosewood. 

Frog and sole all stripped clean.  Now you can easily read the No 10 1/2 marking. 

Went back to sanding a bit more and

Almost there!  I might move on to 120 grit, but it really could use a bit more work with 80.  There's a few more scratches that I'd like to get out and juuust a bit of pitting in the back.

I don't think I'll ever get all the big scratches out.  A part of me wants to leave them in to show that this was a tool that was used.  Most likely it was very heavily used as part of farm life.  I wouldn't say that it was abused, it wasn't broken and mostly well kept.  So I want a bit of that legacy to live on.  The other part of me wants it to look as pristine as it was right from the box.  My arms and back are telling me to leave the imperfections.