Carried away restoring braces

[Robert Hartmann]

I recently had hip surgery that kept me from doing any woodworking. I could stand and move around, but wasn't allowed to do anything strenuous, so I decided to restore some braces I had. I've been doing hand drills for years and selling them to buy other toys. I have a North Bros 12 inch I use for larger holes and use a collection of 5 and 6 inch braces for most other tasks. I had collected a full set of MF No 30-34 braces and a number of 6 inch ones. I decided to restore the set for me. I took them completely apart and cleaned/polished every part. As I progressed I decided to work on the 6 inches as well and, well, it got out of hand. I ended up completing the set, two more No 34s, a MF 1324 and an HSB&Co 1908 (6 in). The No 30 was the oldest dating from 1894-1899 followed by on of the 34s from 1905-1910.

I also had a 10 inch marked "Anniversary No 30" that has no other markings. It looks like a MF in every way, but no idea. The HSB&Co one was interesting. I hadn't heard of them, so I spent some time doing some research. I found a couple catalogs from 1908 and 1910 that had it in it. Looks like it was made by MF for their hardware business. They had two tool lines with one being sold off as True Value.

Anyway, the hip is good to go now, so maybe I'll start an actual wood project.

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[Rob Lee]

Wow - those look great!

You really did a fantastic job!

Cheers -

Rob

[Jake Hillestad]

Very nice.

Inquiring minds - what was your process to get them to that level of finish?

[J. Greg Jones]

Truly outstanding! I too have a collection of braces that I keep telling myself I’m going to restore one day, but I still haven’t started. That HSB&Co brace is a real eye catcher! Nice work.

[Jim Koepke]

Those are beautiful, great work.

jtk

[steven c newman]

OP can stop by any time, and clean mine up...
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Up to the stanley 14" one....

[Robert Hartmann]

Very nice.

Inquiring minds - what was your process to get them to that level of finish?

Simple brute force. I take them completely apart. Soak what I can in evaporust and then start with the highest grit sandpaper possible, usually 220 or 320. Then work up to 2000 grit followed by polish. Occasionally I'll have to use needle files, but try not to. A couple of these were pretty rough and I had to file them some. I cut the paper in thin strips and work it like polishing a boot. I keep saying one day I'll buy some actual polishing equipment. The chuck and other parts I find ways to put in the drill press. It's a bit tedious, but somewhat relaxing.

[Jake Hillestad]

Simple brute force. I take them completely apart. Soak what I can in evaporust and then start with the highest grit sandpaper possible, usually 220 or 320. Then work up to 2000 grit followed by polish. Occasionally I'll have to use needle files, but try not to. A couple of these were pretty rough and I had to file them some. I cut the paper in thin strips and work it like polishing a boot. I keep saying one day I'll buy some actual polishing equipment. The chuck and other parts I find ways to put in the drill press. It's a bit tedious, but somewhat relaxing.

I see. I've used the brute force approach on a few. Was hoping you found a game changer. Looks like my users are destined to stay tarnished, lol.

[Geoff Emms]

The problem I have with the brute force approach is the loss of provenance. As a brace collector, though I'm sure other collectors may be in the same boat, I have a tool I'm sure was made by xxx but it's been polished to the extreme and the identification lost. I'd much rather a tool which has had the grime and gunge cleaned off, de-rusted and still able to read the faint original branding.
Cheers,
Geoff.

[Richard Hart]

Old post but had to reply... what a job! Don't even know how to disassemble mine to clean them so I just oil them up/unfreeze them and take the bench grinder wire wheel to them. They look good but, damn, nothing like this!
What kind of polish?

[Robert Hartmann]

Yes, an older post, so this brought back some memories. Being an old car guy I like Wenol polish. It comes in a small'ish tube. There may be better stuff out there, but I've always liked it.

They are pretty easy to take apart. Two pins, you can see them in a couple of the pics, just need to be punched out. They are usually tapered a bit, so they will pop out easier in one direction. The top handle is held on with three screws. Once they are out the head needs to be unscrewed (don't just pry it off). Under that you'll usually find a washer that's been peened over. This can be the difficult part. You have to take a small file and shave it down until the washer comes off. Not hard, just takes some patience. After that the head just slides off, but be sure to catch all the bearings. That's pretty much it. Taking the head off isn't really necessary, but I find polishing up the post and cleaning out the bearings makes it spin effortlessly. Plus I'm a bit anal:)