gook on saw handles

[les winter]

On a number of vintage saw handles I have examined, there is a covering of black guck where the handle would be held.

On one of mine I decided to strip the handle. Citristrip is what I used. No love. The black stuff got a gooey, but remained. Paint thinner, lacquer thinner, soap and water: no luck.

Anyone know what this is and how to remove it?

thanks.

[Jim Koepke]

Howdy Les,

It might help to know from whence these saws came. For example if the saws came from the UK it could be tallow.

It could be resin/pitch from the wood the saws were used to cut by a previous owner.

Often with an unknown substance it may be best to set up all of your available solvents and use just a dab of each on various spots. Some materials will set up and become more difficult to remove with a solvent that doesn't have the effect of removing the substance.

Another option may be to scrape the handles to remove the gunk.

jtk

[Lee Schierer]

It is probably a mixture of the original varnish, hand oils, dirt, sawdust and what ever the carpenter had for lunch.

[Joe Bailey]

Have encountered this many times on old saws.
I suspect it is tar in most cases.

Nothing short of stripping the handle has ever worked for me, and I've tried everything in an attempt to get rid of only the tar and leave the finish.

A soak in lacquer thinner, followed by a little persuasion with steel wool or scotch-brite will take it to bare wood.

[Phil Mueller]

I do as Joe does. Complete soak in lacquer thinner and a nylon brush usually gets everything off. I was wondering though, have you tried something like Goo Gone.

[Noah Magnuson]

A medium sized zip-loc bag works great for giving a saw handle a good soak in lacquer thinner (or whatever). You don't even have to put much solvent in. Just remove most of the air and let it do the work.

[Stew Denton]

Les,

Some things, like tar will be cut with paint thinner. If paint thinner does not cut it then it is not tar. You need to put some on something like a paper towel and then scrub on the handle with the paper towel soaked in paint thinner. Then look at the paper towel to see if a little has soaked into the paper towel, that will tell you if it is soluble in the paint thinner. If it is only somewhat soluble, some will be soaked into the paper towel even if you can't tell by looking at the gook itself.

Another approach is to soak the handle in toluene for a bit. Toluene will go after tars and old finish much better than paint thinner as it's solvency properties are much better.

One other thing to try is denatured alcohol, as it is the solvent for shellac.

If no solvent works, I would go with a stripper or scraper approach as listed above.

Stew

[les winter]

Lots of good information here. Thank you all.

[les winter]

Lacquer thinner immersion for 1/2 hour pretty much did the trick. What a mess. I'll be a little more conservative in my future saw projects.

thanks for the help

[lowell holmes]

I would scrape the handle with a card scraper.

[Pete Taran]

I’ve restored 1000s of saw handles with everything you can imagine covering them. If you take some mineral spirits and make the end of a 0000 steel wool pad wet with it, that will do the trick. Just keep working the wool against the offending gunk and it will come off. Keep the steel wool wet and keep exposing a new area. The bonus is it doesn’t usually remove the finish and you can be selective on what area you go after.

[Joe Tilson]

Oven cleaner does the trick for me. Use the odor free, fume free type.

[Mike Brady]

Just be sure to avoid strippers that contain methylene chloride (Strip-X, etc. found in paint departments ---Home Depot already has) which will shortly be banned from consumer use. This stuff works great on saw handles, but you want to live to use those saws. I'm sorry to admit I have done dozens of handle refinishes starting with this product. I did wear gloves at least. I have switched to a stripper made from soy oil. It is what is used to remove graffiti.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Warning!!!! Toluene is a carcinogen. Use it carefully and only in a well ventilated area. Wear gloves and preferably an organic vapor cartridge respirator.