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[DonSlaughter]

Here it is again going through hard maple like a hot knife through butter!  It was pulling to the right just slightly but a quick swipe with the diamond stone and it splits the line!


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[Admiral]

I don't know if you've ever used Evapo-Rust but I've had fantastic results cleaning saw plates with it. 

I'm hesitant about evaporust as a while back I read some technical piece about high carbon saw plates and chelation that was not positive, so I remain wary.  Saw plates are relatively thin, and if vintage, have been hammer tensioned, so I'd rather not risk messing any of that up.  I scrape with a razor, and use sandpaper/steel wool/scotchbrite with Windex as a lube; cleaning a plate really doesn't take all that long.

I don't know of any sawsmith who restores and sharpens saws who uses chemical means to clean the plate; maybe one might speak up here on this as I'd like to hear their opinions on this.

[bandit571]

Sometimes, I'll use Simple Green ( full strength) and a wide,old chisel....to scrape away the worst of the rust/crud.

Turtle Wax makes a polishing compound ( 2 actually)   that can then polish a saw plate quite well....use a green (3M) Scatchy Pad to scrub with first....then, buff things out with a few clean rags...

   
Compared to...

   
Worse of the crud was soaked in PBBlaster, THEN scraped down...before the green pad was used ( even attached the pad to a palm sander, and LIGHTLY pressing down)

   
YMMV...

[DonSlaughter]

I'm hesitant about evaporust as a while back I read some technical piece about high carbon saw plates and chelation that was not positive, so I remain wary.  Saw plates are relatively thin, and if vintage, have been hammer tensioned, so I'd rather not risk messing any of that up.  I scrape with a razor, and use sandpaper/steel wool/scotchbrite with Windex as a lube; cleaning a plate really doesn't take all that long.

I don't know of any sawsmith who restores and sharpens saws who uses chemical means to clean the plate; maybe one might speak up here on this as I'd like to hear their opinions on this.

Thanks for chiming in, Admiral. I did not know...never heard of the chelation factor.  As I said, I've used it extensively on all kinds of tools....sure hope I haven't ruined any of them.  I, probably, have a dozen or more saws I've use it on and they haven't presented any problems...is there any way I could investigate to see if the chelation has negatively affected them?.  I don't mind using the elbow grease to clean up the saw plate but, when I discovered how effectively this non toxic chemical worked...it just made sense to do it.  I was introduced to it by someone on one of the forums and was told to always rinse thoroughly and lubricate the plate immediately. I use tallow and always clean & lube after use as well.