TIL my grandpa's old router plane is worth more than my power one

I was over at my uncles place last weekend helping him clean out his garage. He handed me this beat up old wooden router plane that belonged to my grandpa. I almost tossed it in the donate pile but he stopped me and said "your grandpa cut every dovetail joint in this house with that thing." Now I'm looking up the model online and it's selling for like $150 on ebay. Has anyone else found a hidden gem in a family members old toolbox that turned out to be valuable?

2 comments

2 Comments

tyler49210h agoMost Upvoted

@ninabutler I mean sure, $150 ain't gonna buy you a car but it's not nothing either. But the real point is that old tool was made to last, not like the plastic junk we get now. That router plane probably has 50 years of use left in it if you sharpen the blade. And honestly, who cares if it doesn't adjust as smoothly as a new one? It's your grandpa's tool, that's the whole value right there.

ninabutler13h ago

$150 isn't exactly life changing money though, is it. You could sell that old wooden router and buy maybe one nice new clamps or a couple decent chisels. Meanwhile your grandpa's tool has probably got cracked handles, rusted parts, and zero adjustability compared to a modern router plane that costs the same. It's like people who get all excited about old cast iron table saws when a new saw from Harbor Freight cuts straighter than anything built before 1970.