Bummer

[Admiral]

I was so excited....  a T11, 95%+ japanning, pristine wood on tote and knob, full triangle logo laminated iron, corregated to boot, #4 smoother, light surface rust; this is puptent in your Wranglers time for me.....

Alas, it got manhandled during its life, as when cleaning the cheeks, two fine cracks in one cheek appear, not through to the other side, but my puptent immediately diminished.  Now I'm in mourning for a 100 year old plane.  Cracks not enough to interfere with it as a user, but they are there, an otherwise pristine example...... <sigh> ..... I hung the black bunting on the door to the shop.

[andrewb]

Almost found myself in a similar pickle at a yardsale today.  Nice looking T11 No5 with decent handles and corrugated sole amongst some other decent offerings but no prices on anything.  Made a pile thinking it might get me a better bargain and we start hemming and hawing over the planes.  Owner doesn't know what they want but $20 for the pile isn't swaying.  I pick up the No5 for a closer look to see what I want to offer on it and notice the other side that I'd not really looked at had what looked like a horseshoe riveted to the side to repair a crack that came up from the mouth.  Set the plane aside and we started renegotiating my smaller pile.