I bough this Stanley no 45 at an antiques auction in Groot Brak River RSA in December 2013. As you can see there are several parts missing and was painted with a thick black paint. I decided to get rid of the paint and sent it to my main man Kenney at the Prop Shop who bead blasted it to bare metal. Unfortunately I did not take a picture of this.

 

 

21/7/2014 Then I took it to a gunsmith who “blued” it. This is a process I know nothing about apart from it being a rust resistant treatment usually applied to a rifle’s metal parts. Now it looks a bit better and will hopefully stay looking this way for another century. I am using it as decoration on my shop’s wall due to all the missing bits. If you listen to Patrick Leach, it is not a plane you want to use anyway.