There's recently been some fresh interest in the 1980s Record plough/combi planes, models 044C, 045C or 050C. Although they are well-made planes, and won a Design Award when they were new, lots of people don't like the blue plastic handle, finding it slippery.
Some time ago I replaced the handle on mine. I think I have shown this before, but maybe only in passing, and I couldn't find it by searching, so here it is again; apologies to those with good memories. I hope it will be useful to any new owners of these good-value planes.
Before:
Take a piece of unidentified thick hardwood, sketch a shape, cut it out, refine the shape
Here it is as initially fitted
This was actually a bit too thick and clumsy, so I later removed some more wood. It is now much more comfortable. The change is reversible, if needed - I just swapped the original screw and stud for woodscrews. One of them goes into a glued-in plastic wallplug, the other just into the wood.
Some time ago I replaced the handle on mine. I think I have shown this before, but maybe only in passing, and I couldn't find it by searching, so here it is again; apologies to those with good memories. I hope it will be useful to any new owners of these good-value planes.
Before:
Take a piece of unidentified thick hardwood, sketch a shape, cut it out, refine the shape
Here it is as initially fitted
This was actually a bit too thick and clumsy, so I later removed some more wood. It is now much more comfortable. The change is reversible, if needed - I just swapped the original screw and stud for woodscrews. One of them goes into a glued-in plastic wallplug, the other just into the wood.