Plane restoration - paint instead of bluing?

[Doug Hobkirk]

Bob Smalser has presented some outstanding threads on restoring user planes. I believe he (1) uses a rust converter, (2) rinses off the phosphate acid and detail cleans as needed, and (3) follows by bluing all the metal. I think the specific bluing limits future rust, hides some stains, and helps when flattening the various surfaces. I love it! But i wonder about other methods.

Do others have different methods for user planes? Paint instead of bluing? Marking soles / sides / blades with magic marker to find problem areas?

I have a disassembled plane soaking in Evapo-Rust (my first time using it).

[Jim Koepke]

I have used Rustoleum gloss black enamel to repaint. A few coats applied with a little less than an hour drying time seems to work. Set the plane on a flat surface when drying or the paint will tend to run to one end.

If nothing else, this feels a lot better when using then the scrungy surface usually found on a 100 year old plane.

[Richard Niemiec]

I think Bob's rationale is related to his climate in the pacific northwest, e.g., damp, and the bluing addresses that issue. For me, in NJ, I never saw the need to paint, as even with the worst rust bucket I've gotten there's still 60% of the japanning left, and I simply put a coat or two of Johnson's wax on all surfaces of the body and buff it up, and that takes care of any rust concerns. I do have a walkout basement shop that is dry, so moisture is not a significant issue. Some guys like to strip and paint, but from my perspective that's simply cosmetic.

[Frank Drew]

... the scrungy surface usually found on a 100 year old plane.

Isn't that the truth, Jim; there's just nothing nice about handling a tool with rust -- a plane, a screwdriver, whatever.

[Bob Strawn]

I respect Bob Smalser's methods quite a bit. I have used and tested his rust prevention regime:
http://battlering.com/woodworking/images/Marking%20Knives/Marking%20Knives%20Oxpho2.JPG

I am convinced that Bob's entire process is important to the prevention of rust. Oxpho does a good job, but if you remove rust by phosphoric acid, the way that Bob does in preparation to treat with Oxpho, you also Parkerize (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkerizing) the metal giving it an even better resistance to corrosion.

Over time I have ended up with lots of spare hex drive screwdriver bits, that I will never use. So I used a handfull of them to test the various treatments. Leaving a bit on a freshly planed damp cedar board is a great test of corrosion resistance. Burying a bit in a cup of damp chemically fertilized soil is also a great test. Both of these give relatively quick tests of corrosion prevention.

Oxpho by itself is much better than nothing.
Phosphoric Acid followed by Oxpho is pretty amazing.
Phosphoric Acid, first used to remove zinc from galvanized parts, followed by Oxpho is now the method I will be using in the future. This has the added advantage of allowing me to forge the parts that were zinc coated with much reduced danger of zinc fever.

I also use ballistol to even further protect tools.

Bob