Reloving an old tool

Roger Tulk

Member
Messages
3,018
Location
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Back abut 1965, i bought a 10" Surform tool which I and a friend used in constructing a wood kayak. I used it from time to time after that, but for the last 40 years or so it has haunted the back recesses of my drawers and tool boxes. It is pretty well worn out, and from time to time I would go into a hardware store and look for the replacement blade. I only ever had the straight blade, but the blades were rare in Canada. Because of some projects I am undertaking, I wanted to use it again, so I went online. None of the Canadian suppliers have the blades, other than the 6" one, but Amazon was able to supply the 10" flat and half round blades, and a 6" blade ( have the hand file version) for a reasonable price. So I ordered them. when I went to pay, the system told me they could not ship the half round blade across the border. As the other two blades were OK, I thought this was bloody stupid. So, I had them shipped to my lovely daughter in Indiana. They'll get there on Monday, and she will gladly send them on to me.

I can't for the life of me figure why the flat blades are OK, but the half round one isn't. I remembber these being very efficient at removing wood. and I am looking forward to using them on some bow projects, and a kayak project I hope to start later this summer. It'll be a pleasure to have that old tool back in use.
 
I have several surform tools, the small scraper, the block scraper and two long ones one with the curved blade and another with the flat one. With the flat ones if you want to remove material you have to skew them heavily otherwise they almost glide and can be used to leave a smoother surface, in fact that's what they advertised here, that the tool could be used both ways, for fast removal and for smoothing, together with the capabilty of changing the orientation of the handle depending wether you want to use them as a plane or as a rasp.

The main problem is that if they have been used more like a rasp on rod ends or similar (my case) the teeth of the central part of the blade get worn out and when you use them flat they do not bite on the wood because the teeth on the sides are higher.
 
The blades arrived today, courtesy of my daughter. No, not that one! The other one! I took them out and put the flat blade in the tool. Even after 52 years it works as well as ever (Well, what did I expect, eh? Nothing's happened to it for 40 years.) It didn't take off wood quite as I remember, but that was spruce; this is red oak. I'd throw in a photo, but a thunderstorm came up whie I was playing with it, and I had to rush everything into my shed.
 
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