Restoring Antique Wood working tools.

[nortac]

I have several antique carpenters' planes that belonged to my great grandfather. Unfortunately, they were stored in a barn for many years and are now uniformly rusted. I think most of them can be restored to working order, although some of the blades may be toast. Looking for suggestions on gentle rust removal. I would like to avoid sand/soda blasting as much as possible. I anticipate eventual sanding the flat working surfaces of the planes and will use some sort of flat plate to do so. This will be a very long-term project and I'm in no rush to complete it. What are your suggestions?

 

[luvmysuper]

I have several antique carpenters' planes that belonged to my great grandfather. Unfortunately, they were stored in a barn for many years and are now uniformly rusted. I think most of them can be restored to working order, although some of the blades may be toast. Looking for suggestions on gentle rust removal. I would like to avoid sand/soda blasting as much as possible. I anticipate eventual sanding the flat working surfaces of the planes and will use some sort of flat plate to do so. This will be a very long-term project and I'm in no rush to complete it. What are your suggestions?

I refurbish tools quite a bit.
This Sargent Plane (made for Craftsman) was a mess.

Stuff I'm doing at the house!

Thought I'd share some of the stuff that keeps me busy around the house in my spare "retired" time.

www.badgerandblade.com

And this Parker Vise was as well.

Stuff I'm doing at the house!

Thought I'd share some of the stuff that keeps me busy around the house in my spare "retired" time.

www.badgerandblade.com

In both cases I used Evapo-rust. The stuff is quite amazing. Non-toxic and re-usable. Ok, by non-toxic, I mean it isn't deadly by exposure, not that it's ok to drink!

Evapo-rust is a bit on the expensive side, but I'm telling you, it is miracle working stuff. Soak your rusty object in it for a few hours and rinse off with hot water.
A word of caution, the object MUST be completely submerged. If it is too large, and you try to do half at a time and flip it over, you WILL get a demarcation line where the surface level was.

 

[Jbird45]

I second @luvmysuper suggestion on evaporust. It will gently remove the rust but it will leave a darkened patina that can be removed with sandpaper or a scotchbrite pad if desired.

If the blades are toast, Veritas makes good replacement irons.

 

[luvmysuper]

I second @luvmysuper suggestion on evaporust. It will gently remove the rust but it will leave a darkened patina that can be removed with sandpaper or a scotchbrite pad if desired.

If the blades are toast, Veritas makes good replacement irons.

Yup, I just clean off the black patina with a hog bristle brush or scotch brite and hot water. A little polishing and you're good to go.
If there's a lot of pitting, it won't resolve that, but it absolutely gets rid of the rust every bit as good as electrolysis.

 

[luvmysuper]

I'll also mention that because the metal is so clean after treatment, there is a chance of flash rust, so I make sure that I heat the object up with very hot water and dry it as best I can to prevent surface flash rust (which can start to appear within minutes if you leave it cool and wet).

 

[nortac]

@luvmysuper, did you remove the wood knob and hand piece before treating the plane with evapo-rust?

What type of paint did you use on the painted metal surfaces?

 

[ctr]

Naval Jelly. Used it to cleanup an old H&R shotgun left to rust.

 

[luvmysuper]

@luvmysuper, did you remove the wood knob and hand piece before treating the plane with evapo-rust?

What type of paint did you use on the painted metal surfaces?

Yes, I completely disassembled it. I refinished the handle and knob.
The Japanning was shot, so I used black high gloss Dupli-Color Ceramic engine paint in place of the japanning.
The blue logo background on the lever cap was Rustoleum (applied with a small brush after masking. Once dry, I then buffed it off of the raised logo lettering) as was the orange in the appropriate color on the frog.

 

[Tirvine]

I'll also mention that because the metal is so clean after treatment, there is a chance of flash rust, so I make sure that I heat the object up with very hot water and dry it as best I can to prevent surface flash rust (which can start to appear within minutes if you leave it cool and wet).

Flash rust is an issue with carbon steel pans and tinned things like Moulis or canele molds, too. Since I cannot get every nook and cranny, I just put them in the oven at 250F for a few minutes, hot enough to be above boiling even if the oven is not correctly calibrated but not hot enough to damage wood or tin.

 

[luvmysuper]

Flash rust is an issue with carbon steel pans and tinned things like Moulis or canele molds, too. Since I cannot get every nook and cranny, I just put them in the oven at 250F for a few minutes, hot enough to be above boiling even if the oven is not correctly calibrated but not hot enough to damage wood or tin.

I have used the Mrs. Oven to beeswax my Meerschaum pipes surreptitiously, but if she got wind that I put a tool in her oven, she'd snatch the hair right off my scalp!

 

[Tirvine]

I have used the Mrs. Oven to beeswax my Meerschaum pipes surreptitiously, but if she got wind that I put a tool in her oven, she'd snatch the hair right off my scalp!

Maybe she'd allow it if you placed the items on baking parchment.

 

[luvmysuper]

Maybe she'd allow it if you placed the items on baking parchment.

I have used the propane grill on the patio for the purpose, and that works pretty well too.

 

[nortac]

What is Japanning?

 

[Jbird45]

What is Japanning?

Japanning is the black paint used on the bed of most Stanley bench planes and on a lot of there tools from pre-1880-90's before they started nickel plating everything.

I don't know the whole technical mumbo jumbo of it but I do know you can find homemade recipes on the internet and woodworking forums. I usually just use black engine enamel if a bed is so bad it needs a paint job

 

[luvmysuper]

What is Japanning?

It's an asphalt based finish applied in layers, baked and polished. It was created to duplicate the Japanese lacquering technique.

 

[borwish]

I've never bought one, but I used to hear good things about Hock blades.

 

[Bobbers]

After the flood in 2016 and by the time I got around to it a couple years later and still working on some items. I built a simple electrolysis tank. That worked great for several different things. I used it for bullet molds, tools, a small section of railroad track and others. I also used Evapo-rust and it work also. Good luck with your project.

 

[ctr]

I have used the Mrs. Oven to beeswax my Meerschaum pipes surreptitiously, but if she got wind that I put a tool in her oven, she'd snatch the hair right off my scalp!

Ah, an optimist.

 

[Robert6891]

"Rust Erasers" are great for removing rust. Some 60 grit sand paper is hard to beat too. Chemical rust removal is fine on most hand plane bodies but should be avoided on thinner metals, especially much older metals. It can compromise the integrity of the steel.

Those plane irons may still have a lot of use left in them. I've taken a few irons that date back 200 years and got them back into service. It can take a bit of work to get them cleaned up and a serviceable edge put back on, but can be worth it. That old steel can be hard to beat with modern steels. That said, a few modern manufacturers are worth the coin. Hock is my go to, followed by Veritas. The downside to these is that they are thicker than what was standard back in the day, meaning that to use them on an older plane may require filing the mouth wider.

 

[strop]

Late to this thread but I will second the use of Evaporust. Essentially foolproof but as was pointed out, the object needs to be completely submerged. It can be reused until it no longer works. I’ve also used electrolysis and the evaporust is much easier. It won’t remove intact happening. It depends on what you want it to look like afterwards. I’ve not bothered to paint anything.

The advantage of aftermarket blades from Veritas is that you don’t have to flatten the back! IIRC Hock are the same but it’s been years since I got a Hock blade. If you have the time to put in on the Stanley blades, they should work just fine. I find sharpening them by hand more challenging since they are thinner than the Veritas.