Hello-

   
    Recently, I rescued about 20 wooden planes of various kinds from my dad's 
shop attic, where they had sat for 40 years. They are about 140 years old, 
and once belonged to my great-great grandfather. I feel very fortunate to 
have them. Unfortunately, some didn't weather the last century so well. One 
of the arms on a plow plane I'm cleaning up has the slightest bow in it, 
which prevents the body of the plane from sliding further than an inch or two 
before it binds. Is there a way to straighten out the arm without doing harm 
or removing material? 

   Also, I'm sorry to say that I've broken some screws in trying to remove 
them. What are some ways to free severely rusty screws from wood without 
breaking them in the first place, and how should I go about extracting the 
remaining bit of screw? In most cases, it was the very tip that let go, so 
maybe there's enough screw to hold.Believe me, I was as careful as I could be 
trying to remove these things- I worked them back and forth gently, and 
heated them using a soldering iron hoping the expanding metal would break 
them free. Thanks!


Art Bailey