How do I remove plastic gunk from chisels?

[Steff Pace]

My husband has a set of short Stanley chisels, black handles, and the blades are coated with a thick layer of what appears to be plastic, as if they were dipped. They are old, but have never been sharpened due to the coating. I have tried laquer thinner, mineral spirits and acetate, soaking and scrubbing with steel wool each tim, nothing has touched the plastic. He had tried to sharpen on sandpaper-ScarySharp, and got some of the gunk off, but that was a very tedious process and it's still on the side bevels etc. Any suggestions?

[Will Krautkramer]

You could try denatured alcohol and rubbing alcohol. Maybe even give hot/boiling water a try. If nothing else scrape it off with a razor blade?

[glenn bradley]

I used a razor blade; works fine.

[Jim Koepke]

This is one of the reasons I will keep old junker chisels around.

This the kind of job where one of them would be used in an attempt to remove the coating.

jim

[Steff Pace]

These ARE gonna be the junker chisels! I got out my teerusty utility knife and scraped away. Worked great, now does anyone know where I can get a bulk deal on Band-Aids??? Got the backs flat, they weren't too far off, and ground out the nicks. Just got started grinding the bevels when I got called away for an emergency game of Scrabble with 87 yr old Dad. He beat me. sigh. Thanks for the tips!

[John Sanford]

Just take em out with you next time you hit the grill. Burn the plastic off. Don't let the suckers get too hot though. handle with care, quench as necessary. Oh, and do it AFTER the steaks are off the grill, not before they go on! :cool:

[Adam Cherubini]

Just take em out with you next time you hit the grill. Burn the plastic off. Don't let the suckers get too hot though. handle with care, quench as necessary. Oh, and do it AFTER the steaks are off the grill, not before they go on! :cool:

No don't do that!! That will blow the temper for sure. The temper temperature could be as low as 400F.

Whatever coating is on those tools won't effect their function. As you sharpen these tools, they coating will come of (and clog your stones). I say stick to SS until teh coating is gone. Then you can switch to water or oil stones. Diamiond stones would probably be okay. They don't have pores.

Hone it off.

Adam
P.S. These chisels typically fair poorly in reviews. It could be that no one (reviewing chisels) takes the trouble to remove much of them. Chisels change as you grind them. If you don't like these at first, grind the tips back .060" and resharpen them. Polish the backs until you can see yourself clearly in the shine. It's possible that folks simply aren't giving these tools a fair shake.

[lowell holmes]

I have some black handled short Stanley chisels. I have found their metallurgy to be good. I don't care for their balance when paring, but they sharpen easily and take an edge. They are much better than some of the trash I've come across.

I've pretty much settled on Stanley 750's and LN. I have a couple of Bluegrass chisels that are good and one that puzzle's me as to where it came from. It is a 3/8" wooden handle and has KARPENTER on the front of the blade.

[Jim Koepke]

It is a 3/8" wooden handle and has KARPENTER on the front of the blade.

Karpenter chisels were made by Winstead Tool Co of Witherby fame.



jtk

[David Keller NC]

Steff - If you're already gotten all you want off of the chisels, this may be unnecessary, but methylene chloride will absolutely work on the plastic coating. You can buy this as "traditional" paint stripper (read the label - new-fangled citrus stripper won't touch it).

[george wilson]

Well,if they can't spell "carpenter" right,that's not a good sign!!

[Bill Houghton]

Just got started grinding the bevels when I got called away for an emergency game of Scrabble with 87 yr old Dad. He beat me. sigh.

Even when my father's short term memory was going to pieces and we'd had to pull his driver's license because he'd get confused on the road (too many decisions) at about your dad's age, he could beat me at Scrabble - and I took second place in the citywide spelling bee when I was in jr. high! He was always SO proud of himself - and I loved it too.

[Gary Herrmann]

If you want to remove plastic from something that isn't, soak it in acetone. It will melt the plastic very quickly and then you can easily scrape the goo off. You'll want to be careful if the handles are plastic.

[Steff Pace]

Thanks for all the great helpful comments! I finally just used a razor blade and scraped it all off. I am in the process of sharpening them now. I do have better chisels, these were just laying around for forever because of the plastic coating, never been sharpened. We'll see how well they hold up- they are just little shorty butt chisels that might have belonged to my father in law.

Steff

[Chris Padilla]

Timely thread. I was just staring at the one large Stanley chisel I own and saw this plastic coating on it. I will practice sharpening it...once I scrape all the coating off of it. It does have a plastic handle.

[John Shuk]

DNA or mineral spirits works well too.

[Bill Houghton]

DNA

Are you suggesting Steff bleed on the chisels? Sounds like she's done that already.

[David Keller NC]

Just some miscellaneous info here, guys, but typically denatured alcohol or mineral spirits will not dissolve most plastics. There are some plastics (notably polycarbonate) that will be attacked and crazed by long-term exposure to denatured alcohol, but they won't dissolve it.

What's generally needed is a polar aprotic solvent. Some examples of solvents in this class are methyl ethyl ketone, methylene chloride, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), and some of the ether solvents. Most of these are difficult to come by and can be quite dangerous because they will go right through your skin. Methylene chloride, though, is generally fairly safe and can be purchased by consumers as paint stripper.

[Chris Padilla]

Sounds like "razor blade" and "leather gloves" and "be careful fer gosh sakes" to be safest, David! :)

[John Shuk]

I think that what is usually coating chisels and such is a lacquer. Although it may seem like plastic it isn't it is just used to inhibit rust as it crosses the ocean from the far east.
That's why I suggested a typical solvent.;)

[David Keller NC]

John - I think you might be right about the composition of the stuff used to coat chisels. Another possibility is that it's just cosmoline that has hardened over a period of time. Laquer thinner is very effective at dissolving either.

One rather random thought about this is that I wonder what the green or blue "plasti-cote" stuff is made of. I sometimes get edge tools that have been dipped in this stuff, though it's not hard to separate from the tool (usually just peels off).