MVFlaim Furnituremaker

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I were antique hunting in Dayton, Ohio, where I ran into this old level in the back of a barn. I figured it was a Stanley Rule and Level Co level, but the amount of brass in the front intrigued me as it wasn’t the usual design I see all the time.

I really don’t restore levels too often, but I decided to ask how much it was as I thought it would be a fun little restoration project. After the lady told me $10.00, I took it home.

Restoring it was pretty straightforward. I applied some citrus based paint stripper on it to remove the old grime, then washed it off with a soapy dish liquid. Then I applied elbow grease to buff out brass with steel wool and liquid brass cleaner. Then, coated the level with a few coats of shellac.

You can see on the side that it’s faintly stamped 11, which I figured makes it a Stanley No 11. Stanley made No 11’s in mahagony and rosewood. When I was cleaning the wood, I got excited thinking the level was made from rosewood, but I’m pretty sure it’s mahagony. The fact that the brass is only the corners and not completely covering the end makes it an older level.

You can see the Stanley Rule & Level Co. so it’s possible it’s before they acquired their plane line.

I’m not sure how to date the level as I am unaware of a type study on Stanley Levels, but if I had to take a guess, I’d say it’s around 1860-90’s in age. And it’s in pretty nice shape for being as old as it is.

Does anyone know how old it is? Drop a comment and let me know.

Last weekend, my wife and I were antiquing in Dayton, Ohio, when we stopped in an antique store in Tipp City. I went into the back of the store when I saw this thing sitting on the shelf. I immediately knew exactly what it was as I owned one of these tools many years ago. It’s a No 40 Langdon Millers Falls Portable Mitre Box.

When I was a kid, I went to an Ohio Tool Collector Association meet-up and saw one of these miter boxes on a silent auction table. I thought it was cool as it was something I had never seen before. I put a silent auction bid of $20.00 and hoped for the best. Sure enough, I won the auction! The guy selling it wasn’t too happy about the price it received as he said that’s what he paid for it.

The tool is simple in its concept. There’s a fence that you clamp to a board and disc that you turn and set your angle with positive stops. You can even adjust the accuracy of the angle by adjusting the two screws on either side of the positive stop.

I wanted to try it out, so I grabbed a piece of scrap wood and clamped the miter gauge to it, then swung the fence to 45 degrees.

Since it’s made to be portable, the craftsman would just use a panel saw and cut the board while on the job site. The miter box is small enough that it would easily fit in a toolbox.

After I took a cut, I was surprised how accurate it was. That’s a pretty good 45 for trim carpentry work on a house.

Millers Falls made a compound angle version of this tool called the No 41, but I have never seen one in the wild.

I paid $15 for this miter box, which is cheaper than what I paid for the first one 35 years ago. People don’t know what these things are, so if you find one in the wild, chances are you’ll pick it up for a good price. I sold my first one years ago when I was unemployed and needed money. I really didn’t want to sell it back then as I thought I would never find another. Maybe the antique tool gods like me. 

I’ve owned this Ohio Tool Co Moving Fillister Plane for a while now. It was missing its fence and screw when I bought it, so I decided it was time to make a new one for it.

I started by cutting a blank from some brass stock I bought on eBay. The blank I cut out was 3/8″ x 2″ x 3″.

Luckily, I have another fence off another moving fillister plane I could use as a template. While the dimensions weren’t the same, I custom drew what the fence should look like on the brass stock.

After I cut out the shape on the band saw, I punched a spot where my 3/8″ drill bit will drill a hole for the center on the fence. Then I kept moving down the fence drilling holes in the center.

I needed to remove some of the back of the fence, so I went back to the band saw to do the job.

Then, I cut off some of the face of the fence to thin it up and shaped the bottom of it with my files.

In the end, I was happy with my results. Not too shabby, as this was the first thing I have ever fabricated out of brass.

Now I needed to make the screw to hold it in place. Again, I had a screw from another plane that I could use to find something similar at the hardware store. I ended up buying a 5/16″ x 1″ screw from Home Depot, but I had to grind it round on my belt sander. 

I then filed the top to a dome shape and used a hacksaw to file a slot in the top.

I polished the screw up, cleaned the body of the plane, and put everything together. The plane came out really nice and performs well after I sharpened the blade.

Another plane has been saved from the garbage bin of life and is back to use for the next hundred years.