Refurbishing planes

[Dave Dionne]

Hi All
I am not sure that this is the right place to be posting this but, my bother just gave me his woodworking tools, He is planning on moving back on a boat soon so it is time to down size. Unfortunately his tools have gotten wet in the past and not so distant past, (part of the New Hampshire flood waters last week) I got 6 or 7 chisels that are not in to bad condition a nice Japanese saw and 4 Planes. The planes are rusty but not to bad and not really pitted yet, I am trying to find out how to restore these planes. There is a Older #3 Stanley, and Big heavy Stanley/Bailey and a smaller Stanley about 5 inches Long not sure what model plus a rabbeting plane. I would love to bring these planes back and some day give them back to him for his future teak work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in Advanced Dave

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Dave, I don't like to get too aggressive with old tools. If the rust is that recent, a little mineral spirits and a brass brush should bring them back. Wax them with paste wax after they are clean. If they had rust previous to that and are covered in it you may need something more aggressive like electrolysis. Do a search of the archives and you should find a lot on using it to clean old iron.

[Dave Dionne]

Thanks Dennis

I have to tell you that I do not no anything about planes, are these planes worth the time to restore if they are not to bad. I wouldlike to use them until my brother needs them. He is not expecting them but I would like to do this for him

Thanks again Dave

[Kevin French]

Dave if the MS and brush Dennis talked about doesn't work try Scray Sharp on the body. Glue sand paper to some glass, TS, or Jointer wing. Start with some fine paper and if it doesn't work move down in grit. Once you get the rust off work your way up to about 400 grit and paste wax it.

[Jerry Olexa]

Dave there is a ton of material on the web about bringing old planes back to life. Start w Google and try several sites. G'Luck

[William Daly]

Before your "restore" a plane, take note that planes are the most collectioble of hand tools.

You generally should not do anything that takes away from the plane, like sandpapering the metal to remove rust, or removing parts because tehy seem to be damaged.

You also should not do anything that adds on to the plane such as trying to repaint the plane.

Stanely planes were coasted, not painted, with japanning, which is a ashpalt distillate. The planes were baked at 200 degrees for several hours and a second and third coast was somethimes put on.

Do not try to paint, i.e. add on, to touch up scratches.

Best thing to do in to take the plane apart. Only take one plane apart at atime or else you may mix up the parts.

Take care with the brass screws. They are easy to "cam out" and strip the screw slots. The screw slots are larger than most screwdrivers.

Also, the frog mechanism, where the blade lays against, tends to be rusted and or stubborn.

The brass advancing wheel behind the blade can be trying as well.

The brass advancing wheel has attached to it an upside down "Y" peice of metal that fits into a slot on the vblade. All of teh older planes have tese made out of cast metal, meaningthey break if you look at them crosseyed.
You might want to get some penetrating oil before hansd.

DO NOT FORCE ANY SCREW OR BOLT. THEY WILL USUALLY BREAK OR YOU WILL MANGLE THE SLOT.

Wash the plane parts except the wood tote and knob in mineral spirits ro remove any gunk. Use a old toothbrush and gently use a Scothbright pad.

DO NOT REMOVE ANY OXIDATION WHILE DOING THIS.

Once the plane has been stripped and cleaned, use some paste wax top put a protective coating on the metal parts.

do not use brass cleaner or anything to remove teh oxidation.

The wooden tot(back "s'S shaped handle and teh front knob can be cleaneed with Murphy's oil soap.

Paste wax those as well.

Highland Hardware and otehr companies sell "plane scks'. These were originally invented for gun owners.

They are sock that are impregnated with silicone to prevent rust.

They cost $10 each. If you really want to protect teh planes from future corrosion, get some of these.

You may also wanty to replace the blade and chip breaker with a thicker, less chatter able blade. Stanley blades are this and designed for softwood, not rerally meant for hardwood. If you replace the blade, save the stanly blade. It will affect the future saleabilty to a colletor, assumiong it is in other wise good shape


I live in relatively dry Southern California and do not have p-roblems with rust, but you might have if you are going to stor ethe palbnes for awhile.

If you have any questions in particular, send me a private message.

[Joe Rogers]

Dave it sounds from the description in your post that the planes are common user type planes that have seen rough conditions. The advice to not be overly aggressive in cleaning planes is good advice. However, it is intended for collector planes not users. If you want to clean the planes by all means do so. There are no police that will come and confiscate your goodies because you take rust off.;) Chances are there are no windfall valuable tools in this lot. Clean, tune if necessary and use them in good grace. Your brother will be surprised and glad to see them well kept.JR

[Jeff Horton]

William and Joe both have good points. If they are common planes your not going to hurt anything by restoring them. I am somewhere in the middle. I prefer my old planes to look old. I don't want rust on them and I want them to work well. But I just don't want mine to look new.

I will polish the sole just by flattening it to make it work proper. But my 100+ year old #8 still has the old brown patina on it except for the sole. Still has a piece missing in the tote and I like it. It works perfectly and it still looks like a old plane.

There is a fellow that post on Woodnet that restores old planes and when he gets done they look better than new! It's amazing to me and I have been tempted to let him do one of mine but I get over it. ;) Just make sure what you have is not something rare and then good luck on what ever you chose.

[Larry Norton]

Dave, this is an excellent video on restoring planes.

http://www.taunton.com/store/pages/014030.asp

If you intend to keep them for users, I would get rid of all the flaked off asphaltum (The black "paint" on the base) and spray them black. I personally would rather have them clean and shiny for my own use. The sides and the base shouldn't be painted, do like Kevin said to take care of that.

Do a Google on "Scarey Sharp". You'll find a ton of info there.

[Dave Dionne]

I am grateful for all your knowledge and willingness to share.

These are defiantly working planes, he acquired them while going to a traditional wooden boat building school in Arundel Maine must be 18-20 years ago. I am looking forward to using them.

Thanks again Dave

[Roy Griggs]

Dave,
If you are interested there is a "Plane Cleaning 101" tutorial on my website under the projects heading that you might find interesting. The citric acid and ScotchBrite method does a good job of cleaning with minimal effort...
roy

[Ed Harrison]

I was interested in this question when I first started using bench planes, but now, four years and 15 bench planes later, I figure that once I get 'em they done got collected, so I clean all the rust off of the and get them to where they work right and plan on using them for the rest of my life.
Sometimes with some wooden molding planes that might actually have historical value, I don't clean them and only use them very carefully. I have one bought of ebay that claims to have some Revolutionary War character's name on it. Could be faked, though.