Opinions on dealing with peeling nickel finish on plane?

[Rick Cicciarelli]

I just inherited a Stanley #6 from my grandfather. I don't think it is super old, but it was still my grandfather's so I don't want to damage it. I do want to restore it to user condition though as I would like to use it :D There is a layer of surface rust on the body and blades and I think some steel wool and perhaps a wire brush would work fine for cleaning that up. Most of the black paint on the top of the body is still intact so I don't want to touch that. My biggest question is the lever cap. The lever cap stiill has the red paint around the letters for Stanley, but the rest o it is about 50% nickel plate finish which is peeling off and bubbly rust. I don't think I want to take it to a wire brush and take it all off...but at the same time, I don't see any point in having flaky sharp nickel finish coming up and just looking bad. Is there a good way with preserving what finish is still firmly attached, and cleaning up the rest to look good??? What is the best way to approach this?

[David Weaver]

Get a tube of autosol or any other aggressive metal polish and polish it. You might even be able to bring a little bit of a shine to the metal parts if you clean the rust off. In the process, you'll knock the bubbles off of it and not end up scratching the rest of the nickel and making it look doggy.

I think I might've used it on a white scotchbrite and then just on a cloth last time I did it.

[george wilson]

You can't really get rid of the flaked edges of the nickel,or make the cast iron underneath shine like nickel. If it bothers you enough,you could just sand all of the nickel off with wet or dry wrapped tightly around a stick. Then,when the nickel is ALL gone,you can at least work up a consistent polished finish on the iron. You can get it pretty bright,but it won't match the yellow tint of nickel. It will have a gray cast to it. You don't have to get rid of the nickel where the red paint is. Just leave it painted. If you get the cast iron highly polished,you could probably get a price break at a plating shop,but ANY fine scratch left on the iron will shine out like crazy under a nickel finish. You have to polish it perfectly.

They will have to copper plate first,but most of the work is in the polishing.