Preventing rust on planes

[Chris Lee]

I just received a Lie-Nielson LA adjustable mouth block plane and this is my first time venturing into the world of the Neanderthal. What do you put on your planes to keep them from rusting. I work out of my garage which gets pretty humid in the summer. I have to fight to keep it off of my other cast iron surfaces. Can I spray that T9 on the plane body or anything that will keep it from rusting?

Chris

[Alan Turner]

Chris,
Not very fancy, but I keep a small tin at the bench, which has in it a small piece of cotton t-shirt material, which contains mineral oil. When through with a hand tool I just quickly wipe it down. I work in a basement which is quite humid.

[Steve Wargo]

I've used wax, and I've used oil. But the key for me to keep my planes in good shape is to use the plane sacks. If I leave a plane on my bench overnight, it will start to develope a little rust. I never have any problems when they're kept in the sacks.

[Pam Niedermayer]

Be sure and clean off the blade when you're ready to quit for the day (wood will hold moisture against the blade), then oil, then I store all my planes in a cabinet (except the very longest which won't fit, I'll be fixing this soon). None of the planes or other tools that sit in the cabinet rust.

Pam

[Hank Knight]

Chris, your LN is a nice plane. You'll enjoy it and find many uses for it.
I use Renaissance wax on all my tools - at least the ones prone to rust. It's a concoction first made up by the British Museum for preserving their old stuff. It's great for tools and lot of other things in the shop. It dries to a very hard, slick finish that doesn't show fingerprints - perfect for planes - and it doesn't seem to need recoating as often as regular paste wax. You can get it lots of places; I get mine form Highland Hardware. Don't let the price scare you off. A little bit goes a long way.
I also have some plane sacs (socks?) that are treated with a chemical - silicone I think - that keeps moisture away. They come in all sizes for various sized planes - including block planes. They are effective at keeping the rust down, but they are clumsy if you use your planes a lot. I keep my seldom-used planes in the sacs and put my users in sacs if I'm going to be away for a while. The sacs work great and I would use them all the time if my shop was real humid; but, thankfully, it's fairly dry.
My $.02