How to put a shine on an old Stanley Plane?

[wghatcher]

I am in the process of cleaning up some old stanley bench and block planes. I have ordered some new Hock blades and chipbreakers which I hope will have them cutting nicely after I get the setup down. But is it possible to get the shine I see on new planes?

I have used evaporust to clean off surface rust. I have also put a little time into flattening one of the soles. But the metal develops a grey/black film rather quickly. Is it possible to get these older planes to a high shine? If so, what is the secret?

Thanks, Greg

 

[froglips]

Well, thats a good question.

I've used buffing compounds and finer wet/dry papers.

A powered buffer would likely be the easier approach. Just watch out you don't dub over any important surfaces. Mostly the plane mouth and the corners of the plane iron.

I can report that a polished surface resists rusting amazingly well. I had two plane irons sitting in my shop. One in a rough state, the other polished. The rough one picked up surface rust from the humidity, the polished one remained rust free.

Jim

 

[EricS]

Greg, Ive been restoring old Delta power tools for the past few months and have had good success with maroon and grey nonwoven hand pads from Klingspor. They also come in wheel form with a 1/4" shaft that fit in your drill.They wont give you a high polished look but it is pretty bright. I've got a couple of planes I need to work on Ill step out to the shop this week end and give it a try and post some pics for you. As for keeping the light rust from the humidity off---Good Luck

 

[bigcat4t9r]

Depending on how shiny you want it drives how far you take it up in grits. Non-wovens work nice and I've polished up to 2000 w/d before but that will shine it more than new e.g. LN/LV have a milled appearance vs. polished. The buffer would work much faster - look at getting a 3M non-woven convolute "magic" wheel. Lots of people use them to de-rust and depending on grit, you can get a high shine or a milled appearance.

My $0.02 (and its vastly overpriced at that).

 

[wghatcher]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try to make it to Klingspor this weekend and check out the nonwoven pads.

Greg