woodworm riddled coffin plane

[nev]

found another plane at the back of the cupboard this time a wooden one, that has provided lunch for a number of wrigglies and has quite a bit of woodworm holing. is the block now firewood or do you plane pervs try and ressurect these? I was going to keep the blade and bin the rest but thought I'd check just in case.
The wooden block is stamped a few times with the name G.L.COCKINGS or possibly COOKINGS, a previous owner I guess.
It has a Hearnshaw bros john bull sheffield blade in it, a good 4mm thick but with a fair bit of surface rusting.

I'll add some pics later if anyone interested in it

 

[AndyT]

I've no idea what a'plane perv' would say but this is my take on it:

If it's got a few holes but the wood is still structurally sound, inject woodworm killer in the holes, let it dry, and use it. Optionally, stop the flight holes with wax. That helps you see if any new ones appear.


If the wood resembles stale cake, keep the blade and throw the rubbish away.


Make more effort to keep it if it's

- a rare type
- the only one like it that you have
- by a rare maker.


Not all old planes are precious but they stopped making them some time ago!

 

[MIGNAL]

Forget the woodworm killer, it's a load of rubbish. Just keep the Plane out of a damp atmosphere. They won't survive dry conditions. Their flight time isn't until next March/April anyway.

 

[nev]

I think the worm holes may be historic...

 

[carpenteire2009]

I'd say that wood wouldn't have much "structural integrity" left judging by the amount of flight holes. That said, I would pop the plane body into a plastic bag and stick it in the deep freeze for a week- this will kill any live larvae and give you some piece of mind.

 

[wizard]

You can pick up a plane like that for .50p at car boot sales without the worm holes, I burnt a sack load not long ago

 

[MIGNAL]

That's a pretty severe infestation, especially given the size of the object i.e. a lot of holes in a relatively small area. Internally it could be a real honeycomb. You could probably get the Plane to work fine. Then again these Planes are so cheap you may as well buy a decent example. Keep the blade and chipbreaker though. If that Earnshaw is anything like mine it's VERY good.

 

[MIGNAL]

You can pick up a plane like that for .50p at car boot sales without the worm holes, I burnt a sack load not long ago

Scandalous!!!

 

[Cheshirechappie]

I'm sure you've just done this to wind us up Nev, but the wedge is supposed to be above the iron, not under it.

That woodworm's been busy, hasn't it?

The iron looks to be fairly full of length, and will clean up nicely. Wire wool and white spirit, or leave it in vinegar for an hour or so. The body is a bit touch-and-go - looks like the worm has had most of it. Coffin smoothers are ten a penny, so unless it's of sentimental value, it may be best to let it go.

 

[wizard]

i think these two may be worth 50p each

 

[nev]

So long as its not some rarefied treasure on the fire it goes then. I'll give the metalwork a scrub and see how it comes up.
Thanks for the input gents.

 

[matthewwh]

I've got one of those too Wizard.

Brilliant scrub plane!

 

[woodbrains]

Hello,

You might be stressing over the wrong infested item. If tha plane got the woodworm since it was put in the cupboard, then have a serious look at the cupboard and the house the cupboard is in!

Mike

 

[nev]

Hello,

You might be stressing over the wrong infested item. If tha plane got the woodworm since it was put in the cupboard, then have a serious look at the cupboard and the house the cupboard is in!

Mike

double checked! and then checked again. all clear 8)

 

[Sgian Dubh]

I would pop the plane body into a plastic bag and stick it in the deep freeze for a week- this will kill any live larvae and give you some piece of mind.

Freezing as you say might work, but one week at the low temperature may not be enough time, and other conditions have to be met too as follows:

Freeze treatments to destroy insect pests, including eggs, grubs and larvae work best when the temperature drops rapidly. The target temperature should be reached within twenty four hours throughout the object to be most effective, not just the surrounding air temperature or the outer portions of the piece. Insects can adapt to slow changes in temperature much better than they can cope with relatively quick changes. The freezer must be capable of taking temperatures down to at least -18ºC (-0.4ºF) and then once the object has reached this temperature it has to be maintained for at least two weeks. If the freezer can maintain temperatures as low as –30ºC (-22ºF) the treatment period, once the necessary temperature is reached, can be as short as three days.

A difficulty that has to be overcome using freeze treatments is maintaining the moisture content of the object being treated. Water migrates out of wood as atmospheric RH drops, and cold air has very low RH so water moves out of wood and it may become too dry. Small objects must be wrapped and sealed in plastic bags to help maintain moisture content levels, and if air can be evacuated out of the bag prior to freezing this helps to maintain the object’s moisture content. After treatment the wrapping needs to stay in place until the object properly reaches normal temperatures to prevent condensation onto it as this may cause damage to finishes and so on which won't probably won't apply in the case of the plane in question. Slainte.

 

[Pekka Huhta]

I have treated some planes with wodworm by just placing them in the microwave oven and nuking them on low power for roughly a minute (without the irons, that goes without saying). The wood is dry and doesn't heat that much, but the bugs will be killed when the temp reaches ove 50 degrees. I did read some paper saying that about 50 °C is enough for killing the woodworm. It wasn't that one:

http://www.ciart.it/biblioteca/amicrowaw.pdf

...but it was something similar that I could not find again with a short search.

A Finnish way would be to take the worm-infested plane with you in the sauna You can even treat whole pieces of furniture that way, but you have to be extra careful, as it takes time for the wood to heat up and the joinery, glues and in some cases the surface treatment may suffer.

Pekka