Chisels

• Is it straight? Chisels must be completely flat at the end, if not they will not sharpen or cut properly. If you can handle it eye it along the length, or better still, check with straight edge both along and across the flat of the back. If it’s not flat it will require work to flatten it.
• Is there rust pitting, especially on the flat side? This is only important at the end of the chisel, the last 5 or so mm, beyond that the pitting will disappear as you sharpen over the years.
• Are they old? People say that the steel in old chisels is always better than those produced now. This is not strictly true but true enough to act as a guide. The quality of steel can be judged when dry grinding, the more red the sparks from the wheel generally indicates better quality steel ie steel that will hold an edge longer.
• How good are the handles? Are they split or crushed over on the end? Is there a good ferrule at the tool end of the handle? Do not necessarily shun plastic handled chisels. The older blue handled Stanley chisels and the green handled Marples chisels are good
• Generally a fairly good set of five older chisels, not necessarily matching should cost about £15 on ebay.

Planes

It is probably more important to ask questions about planes on ebay than chisels as there could be more hidden problems. If you are looking for cheap planes to fettle up I would recommend Stanley or my personal favourite Record.

• Is is complete or has it been cobbled together from bits and pieces? I was caught out with this recently on ebay, buying a very old Stanley five and a half plane and the blade and cap iron were for a five (ie 2″ wide instead of 2 3/8). When handling a plane you can often see when handles are not original, perhaps plastic on an vintage plane. Sometimes it may be a Stanley cap iron on a Record plane, this would not affect the performance but does indicate a cobbled plane.
• Are the handles OK? When a plane is dropped the handle is the most likely breakage. Check for cracks, current or repaired. Often the handle will be loose and unable to be tightened, this can be corrected by putting a washer below the brass screw at the top of the handle. Often plastic handles are cracked at the small screw hole at the base, this is because the holes in the handle don’t align with the holes in the plane base, possibly because it is not the right handle for the plane.
• The other possible breakage when a plane is dropped is the casting of the plane body. This may be at the wings that come up by the blade or a crack running from the mouth up the side of the plane these cracks can be difficult to spot but will effect the flatness of the plane sole.
• Is there rust pitting, in the body or the blade? Pitting in the body may not affect performance, it just doesn’t look nice. The sole  will be rubbed on wet and dry to flatten it I little pitting remaining will not reduce efficiency. Pitting at the blade edge will make sharpening difficult.
• Is the blade flat? This is the same consideration as with chisels, only more so, as the surface to flatten is so much larger.
• How much blade is left? Old planes often have a blade with not much usable steel left. This will need replacing a new standard 2″ or 2 3/8″ blade costs about £12 -£14.
• I have been paying about £30 for 5 1/2 record and Stanley planes on ebay recently, although a recent student on my Fettling course made me jealous saying he had been paying £15 to £20 for his!

Saws

Here I am talking mainly about older tenon and panel saws. New saws are usually hardened so cannot be resharpened so are not much use as second  hand tools. And again it is important to ask questions about the tools when buying on ebay.

• Is the blade straight? Possibly the most important question.
• Are there teeth missing, an unstraight saw can be straightened a little, but missing teeth would take a lot of work to deal with, so perhaps this question is more important!
• Are the handle rivets/scews complete? Often older saws have the brass screws that secure the handle to the blade missing, they can be hard to replace.
• Any rust pitting? Minor pitting is not too critical, a clean up with steel wool and a rub with candle wax can overcome it.