Here’s the images on how I restored a mid-1950’s Marples X4 smoothing plane back to full working order.
What’s not to like about a Marples X4 smoothing plane. It looks good, its heavy. The handle is also the frog like on an old infill plane. But this little beauty has an adjustable mouth so you can set this smoother up for super fine shavings. It’s even got finger indentations on the lever cap. Making it more comfortable in the hand when used on a shooting board.
I found this one and although it has painted dirty looks. Underneath is a seriously good plane waiting to go back into action. I want to retain its character but have it working flawlessly.
Restoring the handles
Items used to restore handles
- Ecological paint stripper
- coarse grain wire wool
- 0000 grade wire wool
- Thin coat of 50 % varnish 50% white spirit to seal the handles
- 3 coats of clear furniture wax
Starting with the handle and front knob. Both covered in dirt and paint. The only reason I’m using this paint stripper is because its ecological. In other words,” it’s not that strong”. I want to restore the plane to tip top condition, but I also want to leave it with some of its history. The original handles had an enamel black paint finish.
I decided not to go down that route and stick with clear wax. If I had painted the handles with black enamel, then I may as well have the lever cap re chromed. I don’t want it to look like it just came out of the original box. So good old clear furniture wax is easy to maintain and plenty good enough for me and my smoother.
Cleaning Individual small parts and lever cap
- Distilled white vinegar
- Medium to soft wire brush
- Metal polish
- Silicone spray / camellia oil
- Clean rag
The best way to clean all the dirt and grime from the small parts. Is to soak them in distilled white vinegar 20 minutes is usually enough time. Take them out one by one being careful not to drop or lose any washers or nuts.
Brush over individual parts with the wire brush swirling them around in the vinegar. Including the plane body and lever cap. Dry with a rag. Once dry Spray them with a silicone spray or camellia oil to stop them from rusting.
A good polish will have protective elements in it. Camellia oil is a very good rust preventative. I’m not looking for a brand-new factory shine. Retaining the planes character is important to me. If I wanted a shiny looking plane, then I would have bought a new one and saved myself all this work.
Lapping the sole flat
Wet and dry paper used
- 120
- 240
- 320
- 600
- 1200
- 2000
I used a permanent marker pen drawing a grid system on all three sides of my plane. Moving the plane in a forward motion apply downward pressure. Using a square and strait edge to keep checking for flatness and 90-degree squareness all around.
The plane and blade must be set and under tension as if you were going to plane a piece of wood. One of the best resources for plane tuning is David finks book Making Wooden planes. He has a whole chapter on fine tuning planes.
Another reason why I bought this Marples X4 smoother. Was because the body did not look like it had excess pitting the sole and mouth are in fine condition. The problems are the blade is rubbish and the chip breaker is not the best. I swapped the blade and chip breaker out for a new thicker blade & chip breaker.
Thanks for reading
Best Matt north
Here’s a journey down the rabit hole of sharpening
The workbench project that the X4 is planing on above can be viewed here
