Resurfacing valves the old way.

[coolford]

Most know that valves were commonly ground in the old days, often using grinding compound and lapping tools of various sorts.  However, there were some tools even called lathes that could be used to resurface valves.  Here are a couple, the first one is actually called "The perfect valve lathe" and was patented in 1920.  As you can see, the valve stem is clamped in a handle and the handle used to turn the valve against the cutter.  The second one has no mark and is cheaply made, but operates on the same principal.  I thought it was relatively new until I noticed it in a Western Auto Catalog of 1930, the last picture.

[oldgoaly]

Mine is a Universal valve grinder, A G Savage Indianapolis, In.
patent pending.
The other fun thing with old engines is decarbonizing the head and valves.

[papadan]

I certainly remember the times I could have used any of those. I used the suction cups on the end of a stick along with the grinding paste. Can't begin to know how many valves I've seated that way.

[Northwoods]

I remember working at an old rock quarry in the summer of 67.  We needed another dump truck, and so we pulled an old International 6 cylinder from their graveyard and did a valve job on it.  The old stick and cup method. 
That thing didn't have a hood or a driver's side door.
Turned out to be a good thing, though, when the motor died as I drove it, loaded with big rock, up the hill to the crusher.  The engine just quit, sudden like, and the air brakes were nothing.  I just turned the wheel to the right and stepped out.  Old Blue bounced through the ditch and a barbed wire fence and came to a halt pretty soon.
Found the problem pretty quick.  One of the spark plugs had popped out, and we found it, lying in the roadway.  Had it going again in half an hour.
Good times.

[Bill Houghton]

The other fun thing with old engines is decarbonizing the head and valves.

There was a guy who, after World War II, decided to clear his head from his combat experiences by buying a surplus amphibious Jeep, converting it to an ocean-going vessel, and "driving" it around the world.  He even found a woman crazy enough to accompany him.  In his first book on the subject, he talks about decarbonizing the motor mid-ocean.  The amphibious Jeeps had a cross-member running just above the flathead four motor, so he was working in a very cramped space, and he describes watching a storm brewing as he increasingly frantically scrapes off the accumulated carbon and puts the motor back together, so he can face the vessel into the waves.  He does finish in time (otherwise, we'd probably never have known!), but only just barely.

By the time I was working on cars, the quality of gasoline had improved to the point that regular decarbonizing wasn't necessary anymore.  I'm not at all unhappy that I missed that experience.