Refurbishing Old Planes

[rick7938]

My brother called me last week and told me that he had found a box full of tools that belonged to my grandfather who died in 1966. He was a carpenter from the early 20's to the early 60's. In the box was a collection of old planes that he had used. Unfortunately, they were not Stanley's, but old Craftsman and Dunlap planes. They still look like nice planes. They range in size from about 9" up to 18". Having been stored in an unheated barn for 40 years, they all have some surface rust that will need to be cleaned and polished, and the finish on the handles have cracked, but the wood is solid.

My questions:

1. What would be the best and least destructive way to remove the rust and flaking paint? I am thinking media blasting, perhaps bead blasting, but certainly not sand. Or would a brush on surface treatment work?

2. What would be the best treatment for the wood after removing the cracked and flaking lacquer? I am thinking just using lemon oil or BLO and letting my body oil create its own patina because I intend to use them after cleaning and tuning them up.

Any feedback would be appreciated. I know that leaving antiques with their original finish intact is the best option, but they really have little value to anyone else but me. I want to make them useful again

 

[froglips]

What a nice find!.

1. Electrolysis. It is easy, cheap, and preserves the japanning. Lots of sites on the net explain the process. Brush on rust removers can do more harm than good (so I read in the past).

My one tip to add, is wipe down the metal with laquer thinner or maybe dish soap, some solvent to remove any old coatings. I found out the hard way that old oil/wax/???? messed up the process.

2. I'm partial to stripping the old wood finish (assuming its bad) and doing danish oil and wax. If its just dirty, try a little paint thinner and 0000 steel wool.

Any pics of your box of fun would help us all drool appropriately!

Jim

 

[rick7938]

Thanks, Jim.

I hadn't thought about the electrolysis method. I have a couple of battery chargers that are just sitting around doing nothing. They can make themselves useful.

Thanks for the reminder.

I'll post pictures of before and after.

Rick

 

[Monty]

If it's just surface rust without serious pitting, then I would recommend just some scotch-brite pads (green or gray), lubricated with some WD-40. The WD-40 seems to dissolve a lot of grime, and will keep the metal from rusting again before you can put a rust inhibitor on there. You'll be amazed at how much you can accomplish with just a few minutes of scrubbing, and you won't endanger the japanning. In my experience, electrolysis may preserve the japanning OR it may completely strip the japanning! I have no idea how to predict what will happen, so I no longer do electrolysis for any tool where I want to preserve the japanning. On the other hand, electrolysis is fine for any non-japanned part. Be aware that electrolysis can sometimes impart sort of a dingy gray color to the metal. This can be removed with some scrubbing using (guess what?) scotch-brite pads.... so that's why I've resolved to just using the scotch-brites to begin with unless there is serious rust involved.

I often use a brass wire wheel on the bench grinder for polishing metal parts like screws and some brass knobs, etc... just a light touch is all that's needed. A mirror polish just looks out of place on a vintage plane, IMHO.

Regarding the wood, it's just a matter of personal taste/preference whether you should refinish the wood. I almost always like the way the original finish looked once I get it cleaned up. With some planes (I think type 18 or 19 Stanleys and some other brands) the painted knobs & totes would look even worse if you strip them! If it's painted, then it's probably made of beech or some other wood that won't look as good as you might expect after it's stripped and oiled. If it's obviously rosewood and it's old, then chances are you can strip it, oil it, leave it alone, whatever you want... it'll still look fantastic. 8)