Restoring My Vintage Wood Plane Keen Kutter #3 for Beginners

Vintage Keen Kutter #3 smoothing plane. Purchased at a second hand store for $5.00.

For starters I am not a wood worker however I do have a wood door that needs refinishing and smoothing out. So here is how I restored my Keen Kutter #3 smoothing plane using what I already had around the house.

Please note that after inspecting the sole I decided that it wouldn’t require sanding to re establish the bevels or a flat surface. Otherwise there are additional steps to this processes that I have left out but you can use the included video tutorial below to guide you in the process, thanks to Paul Sellers.

I ordered a replacement blade

Pinnacle Replacement Plane Blades for Stanley #3 and #5-1/4 Bench Planes

 

 

 

Here are some before pictures!

That is a Stanley aluminum handle
You can see the rust and discoloration of the smoothing surface

Now time to get to work!

Supplies found around the house

  • Eye protection
  • two rubber bins
  • Distilled water
  • Simple green (For degreasing)
  • Bar keepers friend (For brass cleaning)
  • 3-IN-ONE OIL
  • sturdy rubber gloves
  • Citric Acid for food canning (Found in stores with the canning food jars NOT the baking isle).
  • old tooth brush
  • brass brush
  • hair dryer
  • towles
  • paper towels

I started by taking apart the plane

  • First I cleaned each piece with the simple green to remove the grease.

 

  • Then I filled my plastic tub #1 with just enough water to cover the planing parts once submerged. With the rubber bin empty I filled it with hot water first and mixed 1/3 cup of citric acid while stirring. Then I added the planing pieces to the solution and once bubbles were seen I left it sitting for 2 to 3 hours.

    Here are all of the pieces freshly put into the citric acid solution

I came back and using my gloves and used the tooth brush i scrub off rust and debris of each piece and for the most part this worked.  Some pieces needed to sit in the solution left ne’er while I worked. However If I could do it again I would only use my brass brush which worked better for tough cleaning spots and crevices.

Here is the citric acid solution before I started cleaning the pieces.
  • Next I took tub #2 and poured distilled water into it. After each piece was scrubbed clean I rinsed it in the distilled water in order to neutralize the citric acid.
Here is tub #1 with citric acid only and all the pieces removed, the dark sediment is the dirt and rust left behind and tub #2 with distilled water
  • I used the towel to dry it before using the hair dryer on cool setting to dry the pieces individually. I did this to offset any flash rusting which can happen within minutes of water/moisture exposure.
  • The brass pieces were cleaned with the bar keepers friend and the tooth brush to restore the shine and sheen.
  • I oiled everything with the 3-IN-ONE OIL to protect it from any further rusting
Cleaned version of my Kleen Kutter #3 smoothing plane. If you look close at the top of the sole you can see the deteriorated condition of the japping (the black top coat)

 

After
Before

the final step of this process was putting it back together

I ordered a new blade to replace the old blade and NOW WHAT?? well I watched the tutorial below to better understand how I was going to put the new blade in and get to working with my refinished wood plane.

 

Tutorial Video Very Useful

I followed this tutorial for better understanding of the parts and for setting it up for use!