During a recent move, a work bench purchased from Home Depot was damaged.
It had maple top, and during handling some tools were dropped on it causing some gouges. When I first saw the work bench, I thought the best way to repair it was to fill the damage, and do a spot repair.
The customer was not too keen on this idea, so I said that I could hand plane the work bench to repair the damage.
The customer thought it was a good idea, so I went to work. I pulled out my antique Stanley block plane that my son Julien bought me as a present. Good thing I just sharpened the blade on the plane. The work bench was thick, solid Maple hardwood, and was not the easiest to plane. I worked out the damages, and then smoothed the whole top with the block plane. I would rather have used my number 3, or number 4 smoothers to do this, but I had them at the shop. Afer I made a pile of shavings the top was finished, and the gouges were gone. The customer was satisfied. Below is a pic of the result.
