Picked this up at the picnic. No markings other than "Keen Kutter" and "Made in USA", but the measurements say it's the size of a Stanley #6. I neglected to get photos prior to disassembly, but here it is partly disassembled:
I really need to hire someone to follow me around and give me a good whack anytime I pick up something old and rusty. Oh well. It didn't look too bad at the time. Unfortunately there were a couple problems. For one, tons of pitting on the top of the blade and bottom of the chip breaker. This thing obviously sat unused in an unconditioned environment for a long time. This is after I had already started cleaning them:
The other issue I wanted to address was the butchered repair of one of the frog screws. It was drilled out and re-tapped to 5/16 x 18 (vs #12 x 24), and a weird made-up bolt installed. Also, the original screw for the other hole had been replaced with a flat head screw and washer.
To achieve a more appropriate fix, I used a 5/16 x 18 bolt to create a threaded insert with #12 x 24 threads.
Then cut a slot in it, and epoxied it in place.
Some filing followed by work with a diamond stone got it flat again. And I got some better replacement screws from Amazon.
You may be able to tell that I've also been working on rust removal. That still has a little way to go. Several of the parts appear to have had some kind of plating, which is partially gone. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about those. The base and frog will of course get painted, and I'm planning to try one of the cold bluing treatments on the original fasteners to try to give them some rust resistance.
I really need to hire someone to follow me around and give me a good whack anytime I pick up something old and rusty. Oh well. It didn't look too bad at the time. Unfortunately there were a couple problems. For one, tons of pitting on the top of the blade and bottom of the chip breaker. This thing obviously sat unused in an unconditioned environment for a long time. This is after I had already started cleaning them:
The other issue I wanted to address was the butchered repair of one of the frog screws. It was drilled out and re-tapped to 5/16 x 18 (vs #12 x 24), and a weird made-up bolt installed. Also, the original screw for the other hole had been replaced with a flat head screw and washer.
To achieve a more appropriate fix, I used a 5/16 x 18 bolt to create a threaded insert with #12 x 24 threads.
Then cut a slot in it, and epoxied it in place.
Some filing followed by work with a diamond stone got it flat again. And I got some better replacement screws from Amazon.
You may be able to tell that I've also been working on rust removal. That still has a little way to go. Several of the parts appear to have had some kind of plating, which is partially gone. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about those. The base and frog will of course get painted, and I'm planning to try one of the cold bluing treatments on the original fasteners to try to give them some rust resistance.
