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My restoration setups.

Was in my shop working on some blades today and snapped some photos showing my tools/methods/setup. Materials as well of course.

Only thing not included is my sharpening stones/strops , but if anyone is curious about what I use I’d be happy to add it.

I can highly recommend all of the tools you’ll see here, as I’ve learned through trial and error over roughly 10 years.

Some of what you see listed:

Jewelers Anvil from Amazon (drilled shallow 3/16 divots with Milwaukee metal bits, excellent for pinning scales).

Chasing Hammer (3-4 Oz I believe, also Amazon. Works much better than a ball peen.)

Peening hammer and fine tipped bang out pins (Home Depot - Used for knocking out clipped/filed pins when disassembling scales.)

Lie Nielsen Auger Bit File (usually used for sharpening auger bits, but perfect for filing off pins).

Knipex Flush Cutters (Pin Removal)

Knipex Cobra Pocket Pliers

Corded Dremel w/Drill Press Setup and countless types of attachments (sanding, polishing, metal cutting, grinding, engraving, drill bits. Also flex shaft attachment for fine work.

Mini-Cordless Dremel (hated installing/uninstalling corded drill press constantly, so this lets me leave the big guy in press configuration).

Synthetic Rubber Wine Corks and Wet Dry Sandpaper (400 all the up to 3k). Rust removal/mirror polish.

Sunshine Polish Cloths

Mother’s Mag Polish

Brasso

Large flattening granite block and adhesive backed 3M Gold Sandpaper (80, 220, 400). For sharpening/chip removal/bevel setting when a LOT needs to be done.

WD40 (used with wet dry sandpaper when cleaning blades)

Husky File set (tiny guys, various uses).

I think that’s all the main stuff. If you have questions about anything I didn’t (or did) mention, feel free. Cheers
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Was in my shop working on some blades today and snapped some photos showing my tools/methods/setup. Materials as well of course.

Only thing not included is my sharpening stones/strops , but if anyone is curious about what I use I’d be happy to add it.

I can highly recommend all of the tools you’ll see here, as I’ve learned through trial and error over roughly 10 years.

Some of what you see listed:

Jewelers Anvil from Amazon (drilled shallow 3/16 divots with Milwaukee metal bits, excellent for pinning scales).

Chasing Hammer (3-4 Oz I believe, also Amazon. Works much better than a ball peen.)

Peening hammer and fine tipped bang out pins (Home Depot - Used for knocking out clipped/filed pins when disassembling scales.)

Lie Nielsen Auger Bit File (usually used for sharpening auger bits, but perfect for filing off pins).

Knipex Flush Cutters (Pin Removal)

Knipex Cobra Pocket Pliers

Corded Dremel w/Drill Press Setup and countless types of attachments (sanding, polishing, metal cutting, grinding, engraving, drill bits. Also flex shaft attachment for fine work.

Mini-Cordless Dremel (hated installing/uninstalling corded drill press constantly, so this lets me leave the big guy in press configuration).

Synthetic Rubber Wine Corks and Wet Dry Sandpaper (400 all the up to 3k). Rust removal/mirror polish.

Sunshine Polish Cloths

Mother’s Mag Polish

Brasso

Large flattening granite block and adhesive backed 3M Gold Sandpaper (80, 220, 400). For sharpening/chip removal/bevel setting when a LOT needs to be done.

WD40 (used with wet dry sandpaper when cleaning blades)

Husky File set (tiny guys, various uses).

I think that’s all the main stuff. If you have questions about anything I didn’t (or did) mention, feel free. Cheers

That’s a very nice setup and very useful for sure. I’m not as well versed on the SR side of things as I am a DE guy at the moment, but I can certainly appreciate that setup. I can see that it’s been built through trial and error. I can imagine it’d be useful for all types of restorations.
 

Legion

Staff member
I also have a second Dremel permanently in drill press mode. They work fine for small, light jobs like drilling holes for pins in scales. Plus, the chuck on my big drill press wont go down to a 1/16 bit.
 
That’s a very nice setup and very useful for sure. I’m not as well versed on the SR side of things as I am a DE guy at the moment, but I can certainly appreciate that setup. I can see that it’s been built through trial and error. I can imagine it’d be useful for all types of restorations.
Thanks. It’s pretty elaborate, but that’s because I do other types of restoration. Vintage hand tool restoration, small furniture stuff, and woodwork by hand. Lots of sharpening (chisels, plane irons, saws… basically anything). The one thing I haven’t done A LOT of is knife sharpening believe it or not. Never was a big knife guy.

I started restoring stuff when I was building up my hand tool chest and purchasing old neglected Stanley tools so I could do all my work by hand. I fell in love with restoration and sidelined the actual woodworking. After a year or so some folks took notice of my work (just stuff I did for myself and posted pics of on forums). I was asked to do a commission (restore deceased parent’s hand plane), and made a few bucks doing something I liked. A few more here and there, and I was seeing some decent returns on my time.

My mistake was trying to search for and buy tools specifically to restore and resell. Way too time consuming, as good deals are extremely rare nowadays. “Don’t lowball me, I know what I have!” says the 85 year old who’s selling a handle-less Stanley Jack Plane that’s coated in 3/4” rust/paint and usually sells for $150 mint for $100…

That and it’s way harder to get a profitable return (for the amount of time/materials/effort) when selling to passive buyers as opposed to someone who comes to you for a commission.

So I don’t do it anymore, not unless something special comes along or someone wants work done on something that I can tell means a lot to them.

Here’s a few pics of restorations I’ve done. I do it all, including stripping planes bare for new jappaning, crafting hardwood totes/handles, paint, polish, sharpening, rust removal, etc….

Some of the stuff you see:
1800’s Disston D8 Rip Saw

Complete Set of Stanley 750 Vintage Chisels I painstakingly hunted down and restored (lots, lots of time and money, but sold set for $1800)

A incredibly rare and beautiful Stanley 51/52 Shooting Plane/Board

North Bros/Stanley 2101 Yankee Bit Brace (best brace ever made)

Irwin Bluwin Auger Box Set Mint

Millers Falls No 2 Eggbeater Drill I completely restored to factory condition (original condition photo included too)

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Adding some honing gear pics:

Shapton Glass 2k (HC)
Shapton Glass 8k (HR)
Shapton Stone Holder

DMT DIASHARP Diamond Lapping Plate (95 micron)

Ozuku Asagi JNAT (~20k, finisher)

Tomo Nagura Slurry Stone (takes a loooong time on the super hard Ozuku Asagi, but creates an absurd edge. If pressed for time I’ll skip the Nagura and create a slurry with the Diamond lapping plate.

I’ve got a bunch of other gear (Coticule, Escher Y/G Thuringian, a few other glass Shapton (500, 2k HR, 4K HR, 16k HR, Shapton Pond, and a handful of strops). But this progression is ideal. 2k HC, 8K HR, Ozuku Asagi, then right to the leather strop. (I normally strop linen then leather if it’s a routine maintenance stropping, but go directly to leather only after a honing progression.)
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