Here's a shot of the tote. Notice the flat I made at the top
of the horn. That's where a major chip was.
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Dominic Greco |
And take a look at the front
mounting hole. The front is missing and no amount of
tightening would stop this tote from wiggling.

I used a couple small pieces
of rosewood to repair this rosewood tote. Now before you
ask, "Why go through all this mess? Just make a new one!",
I'll give you my reasons.
First off, I really don't
like making totes. I can shape them pretty easily, but I
consistently mess up the drilling for the counter bore at
the top. The only way I can see to make it full proof is to
buy a counterbore bit. And I have one of them on order now.
Secondly, when I'm restoring
an older handplane I like to retain the original rosewood
just to keep a measure of "authenticity". Sure a walnut tote
will look authentic. But those old rosewood totes had a
style. And they look so cool once they are cleaned up and
refinished!
Thirdly, I hate to throw out
a rosewood tote, or cut it up for scrap just because it's
got some dings and cracks. The old timers used rosewood for
a reason. It looks awesome and carves so beautifully!
In order to fix the front of the tote, I
needed to do the patch in two parts. One to give me a base
to work on and one to affix a new "toe" where I could drill
a new
hole for the screw.
I planed/sanded a flat for the patch and
then wiped the area down with mineral spirits (just to clean
away excess oils). After that I found two suitable pieces of
rosewood and then planed/sanded a flat on them as well.

I use 2 part epoxy that
you can buy from Home Depot. I chose epoxy because it makes
a more flexible bond than CA Glue. The cup is for containing
and mixing the glue. It also acts as a nice way to catch the
charcoal dust that I use to color the epoxy.
