Jonathan gave me a number of leather tools that he used as a teenager, that had belonged to his father before him. Among them was this tiny brass hand plane. I don’t know that the hand plane was meant for use with leather – I suspect it just ended up all in the same batch.

It had a fair amount of oxidation built up, so I took the time recently to restore it. Since many of the faces are flat, sanding and eventually polishing these faces on the worksharp was the easiest way to move forward. For all the other little crevices, Brasso and Q-tips.

Sharpening the blade proved tricky. I managed to do sharpen it reasonably free-hand, but if this were going to see any sort of regular use, it would need a jig made.

For the final polishing, a rotary tool with a buffing wheel and some polishing compound.