Can sweat cause rust?

[dan sherman]

I refurbished my first block plane (60-1/2) a few weeks ago and it seems like the day after I use it the finger grips have what looks like really light surface rust. Light is the key word because a swipe or two with steel wool cleans it up. I have also noticed this on my smoother, where my hand rests against the side.

Thus can sweat cause rust,or is something else happening? If it is rust what's the best way to protect against it? I have tried Johnson's past wax, and paraffin wax and neither seems to protect the planes.

[Walt Caza]

Hi Dan,
Ohh ya... sweat causes rust!

I keep a small piece of old tee-shirt in a see-through margerine type tub
with a lid to keep sawdust out.
Every now and again, I add a dash of mineral oil, available in the stomach aids aisle of your drug store.

A quick wipe on all metal surfaces of my fine handtools after a shop session keeps them happy.
And it's not unpleasant to touch the tools next time. Mineral oil is cheap, and the main ingredient in baby oil.

This is an old-school solution. I learned it from Alan Turner on the Creek.(thanks again Alan)
I believe Chris Schwarz has one he calls 'Wobby'...
If I recall correctly, he may have auctioned it off or some such thing?
Good luck with it,
be well,
Walt

ps why the heck are we awake and talking shop at 5am?!?

[J. Greg Jones]

Any sweat has the potential to cause rust just because of the moisture. For some people, it will be a worse problem than for others because of the levels of salts in a person's sweat. My sweat is more prone to cause rust than a lot of people I know-I have little dots of patina all over the cast iron surfaces of my power tools. My grandfather was the worst about this of anyone I have ever known. He would wear denim-blue work shirts and at the end of a hard day, his shirt would be white on the back and under the arms due to the salts that had dried on the shirt.

[Dan Andrews]

I use gun oil on the metal surfaces of all of my woodworking tools. I rub in on with a rag and wipe of the excess. It seems to dry to the touch and leave a protective film. It even stops rust on my old tools. I think a new coat of gun oil at least every 6 months will protect tools not being used, much more often for regularly used tools.

[curtis rosche]

i sprayed a layer of clearcoat on mine.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Sweat has two things that cause rust....salt and H20....deadly combination on cast iron.

[Jeff Johnson]

Sweat contains sodium chloride, phosphate, urea, uric acid, ammonia and lactic acid. Amounts vary by person, genetically and by diet.

So, yeah, sweat can be really bad for bare steel. Oil wipes or a microcrystaline wax (A good brand is "Rennaisance wax" - available lots of places) work really well at reducing rust formation. Avoid silicone oil, because it contaminates wood and messes up finishes.

[Richard Magbanua]

not sure if it's recommended, but I keep a can of WD40 in the workshop and just spray a little on a towel and wipe down my tools when I'm done. Seems to work pretty well and Humidity has been bad the last couple weeks around here in Indy.

[dan sherman]

ps why the heck are we awake and talking shop at 5am?!?

lol it was only 3 Am my time when I posted (right before bed). Between work and all the other obligations of life, my body has become accustomed to a few hours of sleep a night. Usually I sleep 5 to 6 hours a night during the week, and 7 or 8 on the weekends.

[James Carmichael]

Thus can sweat cause rust.

You better believe it can. Sweat is very corrosive. I've seen old guns with fingerprints rusted into the metal.

Thanks to working in 100-degree Texas heat in my un-airconditioned garage, every one of my cast iron machine tops has some discolored spots where sweat dripped onto them.

FWIW, blood is even worse, so don't bleed on your tools;)

[Jeff Johnson]

not sure if it's recommended, but I keep a can of WD40 in the workshop and just spray a little on a towel and wipe down my tools when I'm done. Seems to work pretty well and Humidity has been bad the last couple weeks around here in Indy.

WD-40 was created by a defense company (Lockheed, I think) to be a water-displacement (WD) medium. As such, it's designed to evaporate after displacing the water. While it's wet, it'll allow dust particles to stick to it, so that when it dries, that dust sticks to the metal and attracts water vapor, actually causing rust. What ya need to do is use the WD-40, wipe it off, and use a permanent wax or oil afterwards.

[JohnMorgan of Lititz]

I keep the camelia oil rag in a zip lock bag on the workbench. The only use for this rag is to wipe down the tools at the end of each play time. Every now and again i give the rag a couple good squirts of oil.

Rust free for a few years now...

[Joe Close]

I 2nd JohnMorgan's comments. I've used camelia oil as well, and it keeps the rust off the tools.

I will add, that if the tool sits for along time w/o use, the oil will leave a pasty film. Easy enough to clean off w/ a solvent though, then re-oil. I just keep a oil damp rag handy, wipe down the tool when I'm done for the day/night.

I tried the Johnson paste wax, on a bandsaw table. That did not work so well, minor rust still formed. The wax is good to slick up the surface, but I stopped trusting it as a rust prohibitor.

Since I mentioned slicking up surfaces, for hand planes, I found the canning wax in the grocery store to be the easiest to use. It comes in small blocks, you just scribble some on, and go to work.

[JohnMorgan of Lititz]

My wife is into soap making and there are pounds of beeswax around our house. Had her make me up a small brick for scribbling on the plane sole. Works great...freshly oiled plane sole and wax are a tough combo though...

Also, having the beeswax in "beaded" form is also great for making up mixtures of BLO/Turpentine/Beeswax for finishing....but that's a whole other thread.