

Some days ago I finished writing an article about combination planes and their uses for the Italian woodworking magazine Legnolab. Was this an occasion for a job I had in mind for some time, regarding a not so common combination plane, the Lewin Universal Plane. The Lewin plane was a British tool sold around 50s. Very close to Stanley 45 and 50, is featured by an aluminium body onto which steel skates are fixed. Another particular feature are the cam bolts; they permit a faster and easier part fixing. The plane I acquired was in excellent conditions, complete of all cutters and original instruction manual.The original wooden box (it came with the plane too), instead, came in poor condition.
The plywood bottom was quite irrecoverable as well as the cover was cupped and with its veneers lifted. The box sides (pine) showed the time signs too, split in more points.
Clearly, the box was been stored in a very wet site and the moisture was an hard test for the wood, causing the inevitable damages Either the plane than cutters, instead, came in very fair conditions, rust free, due to a thick grease layer I found onto the plane and blades: someone payed particular attention to the precious box content: Thank you!
So, I decided of restoring the box, preserving as well as possible the time signs which give a beautiful lived look. The first operation was to disassemble parts. The nails were very thin and rusted, so their recovery was quite impossible. I provided to repair splits and, where necessary, I added pine wood for restoring original dimensions.
Original side joints were pinned rebates but, due to the poor wood condition at extremities, I preferred simple rebate joints. For the purpose I added a little bit of new wood and nails for more strength.
I unglued the cover upper veneer and reglued it onto a piece of 4 mm plywood.The new bottom was veneered on both sides with a pine veneer on the upper side and a beech one on the bottom side: the original bottom had a similar structure. 
For veneering I used hide glue and pressed the work between two boards for 24h.
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