> St. Roy discusses the dark, sometimes black patina on English planes
> on a couple of The Woodwrights Shop episodes and explained it was from
> years of being wiped down with tallow ...

How'd I miss this from the Woodwright's Shop?  Tallow... That Spanish
cooper in the video noted here a few months back lubricated the bottom
of his plane with manteca, which at least in Californio Spanish meant
tallow.

I gather it was a common practice in England?

Mike in Sacto