Thread: What are you working on?

Originally Posted by nightcap

Unfortunately I did not think to take a before picture

I decided to post a picture after thinking about this rabbit hole. A few months ago I decided to buy a used plane to make razor scales, now they are multiplying faster than my razors.

In the process of finishing up a Stanley no. 4 restore. This time I remembered a before picture.

Before:


Nearly restored:

Nice! Very Nice Indeed! :

Please expand on how you did the restoration. Acid tank? Tumbler etc.

Originally Posted by nightcap

In the process of finishing up a Stanley no. 4 restore. This time I remembered a before picture.

Before:


Nearly restored:

Now if you could do that to my body.....

Originally Posted by Razorfeld

Now if you could do that to my body.....

Sand off the high spots and then add a little polish and paint. Doable.

I bet you NOS/spare parts are a little hard to find though.......

Originally Posted by Razorfeld

Now if you could do that to my body.....

Can I post a pic to show the OP what he has to work with? Just wondering.

Originally Posted by cudarunner

Nice! Very Nice Indeed! :

Please expand on how you did the restoration. Acid tank? Tumbler etc.

This is the process I have used. It brings an old tool back to life, without resulting in an overly-restored mirror finish. Personally I appreciate some hard earned patina on my tools.

1. Disassembled the plane
2. Cleaned off the coarse debris, (there was a lot of rotten wood hidden under the frog.
3. Soaked the metal in Evapo-rust for about 24 hours.
4. Cleaned wood with mineral spirits and polished with furniture wax.
5 . Removed metal from Evapo-rust, scrubbed with a soft brush and rinsed in water.
6. Dried metal with low power heat gun.
7. Oiled metal and reassembled.

Next I will sharpen and tune the plane. Also, unfortunately I discovered a crack in the lever cap so I will be replacing that.

I have been very pleased with the Evapo-rust chemical. I found this at an auto parts store. From what I understand it chelates the rust into a black precipitate and from what I have seen does not harm the metal or paint, (Japanning). It would likely work well on rusty razors.

I find tool restoration very satisfying and enjoy giving a worn down old tool new life. I began with razor restoration, (which requires about the same amount on work) but I have decided that razor restoration is not for me, beyond my personal use.

Did you have to use something to 'stabilize' were the wood was rotten under the frog/fiberglass resin etc?

Also how was the evaporust to work with? Simply scrub with a nylon brush? I'm wondering as I bought and sent some to my best friend to use on his dad's handsaws and such.

Will his blades be black or will they clean up shiny?

Originally Posted by cudarunner

Did you have to use something to 'stabilize' were the wood was rotten under the frog/fiberglass resin etc?

Also how was the evaporust to work with? Simply scrub with a nylon brush? I'm wondering as I bought and sent some to my best friend to use on his dad's handsaws and such.

Will his blades be black or will they clean up shiny?

Luckily I didn't find any rotten wood on the plane, just old wood shavings packed in there. The metal comes out pretty clean and grey colored, I use an old toothbrush to clean the precipitate off and rinse with water. It is important to dry the steel thoughoughly afterwards or it may rust again. That picture shows the steel after this. You could polish afterwards if you choose.

The evapo-rust is easy to work with. It is water based and doesn't have a strong smell. I am not sure if it is non-toxic but it is a great deal more pleasant to work with than many chemicals.

Trying to get rid of the devils spit on my new Tally Ho. There was some staining closer to the edge that came right off with oil and steel wool, but this devils spit is always fun.......

Before pic.



After 10 mins with oil and 0000 steel wool.




I really need to be careful on the thin acid etch on the blade face. I think I have it as far as I want to take it, other than the 2 black spots (devils spit) which I need to get rid of.

Looking good Andrew. I have often wonder what would happen to devils s*it if you put bluing on it and then buffed away the excess bluing. It would leave a deep dark spot, however would it convert, or stabilize the devil s*it and make it not spread.

I have gotten another free of the bench. It had reallly big pins in it, so I pinned it with Babar collars, due to the size of the holes in the scales. They were the dirtiest ivory scales I have ever seen. However I have been gifted 35% peroxide and it cleaned them up quite nicely. Mr. Roger and the boys;