For those of you who rehab planes and old tools

[Arlin Eastman]

Please show us the before, during, and after pictures of you do not mind.  I know I sure would love to see how not only others do it but just seeing them come back to life again

[JimReed@Tallahassee]

Well, here is a #6 that I cleaned up yesterday. It was mostly dirty but had a light coat of rust in a few places.






It was a type 10, made from 1907-1909. There was white paint in some places.




I cleaned it with a stick, a pocketknife, and a set of brushes. I finished up with red and green Scotchbrite pads. The screws got oil and everything else got a good slathering of paste wax. It looked a little dull because I took the picture before I buffed out the wax.




That's the original blade. This must have been a good user because the blade had been sharpened down to a nubbin. I replaced it with a nice SW blade and pulled a mighty fine shaving.




One more plane ready for work.

[Arlin Eastman]

How do you clean the bed where the frog goes?  I have seen some rusted and wondered how to clean them up.

[bandit571]

I use a wire cup brush in the drill press....get one that fits inbetween the sides...Then work your way fore and aft, until shiny.

[Adnick]

Here's an old A5 Norris, probably 1918 or a little later, bun and blade were missing...cleaned it up a bit before I took the "before" photos.get in a hurry to see what kind of shape it in....I have found a blade.since these photos were made.

[JimReed@Tallahassee]

Wow! Nice job on the infill.

[RodB]

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My favorite link to fantastic knowledge anything traditional woodworking...   https://paulsellers.com/2011/05/restorin...ng-planes/

The link to restoring a plane by Paul Sellers on youtube. ...  there are several others like sharpening a plane to flattening the back of the iron, etc. Paul Sellers is hard to beat on this type of knowledge. 
This link in a complete plane restoration as Paul does them...but I go a bit farther aesthetically to make them prettier. 

https://youtu.be/RYyV6IUpsYk


All you could ever want to know... about planes and restoring them, sharpening them, etc. 
http://www.rexmill.com/planes101/planes101.htm

http://www.rexmill.com/planes101/refinis...nshing.htm
Rexmill's painting method ... at end of page... I have used this with the Dupli-Color paint 1635 semi gloss paint (At O'Reillys auto parts) and it works great. Follow his directions exactly.
http://www.rexmill.com/planes101/japanni...anning.htm

Tune up guide... very good for anyone wanting to restore planes. 
http://www.rexmill.com/planes101/tuneup/tuneup.htm







My personal notes: 

Choose planes that can be rusted but not pitted badly.  If necessary because of rust all over the plane remove rust by soaking parts and the plane body if necessary in solution of phosphoric acid like Prime and Prep from Jasco or Dupont Prime and prep. This acid solution removes only rust and does not affect any of the healthy metal like most other methods of rust removal. I much prefer this method to electrolysis or using Muratic acid or vinegar.    http://www.jasco-help.com/product/prep-primer

This acid treatment leaves a phosphate salt on the metal and after a good rinse you can remove this "gray finish" with a soft wire brush or scotch bright. I use a wire brush on my grinder motor. 

I start as does Paul Sellers with flattening the bottom and cleaning the sides with 120 grit (followed with 220 grit) on my flat granite block. See Paul Sellers method here in link above. He makes some great suggestions. I thought I knew a lot about restoration but Paul always teaches you something new.  Lapping the plane bottom is done with the plane completely assembled. Once the plane bottom is flat and uniform, I do the same with the sides. Next I use a file to round over all the corners of the plane body and use the granite block and sandpaper to relieve some material from the toe and the heel of the plane (see Paul Seller restore procedure) ...  sand all smooth with 220 grit wet/dry paper. Finally I sand the surface of the plane body with 320 grit to make all uniform. 

Next I turn to the plane parts, the frog, plane iron, chip breaker, and lever cap along with all screws and tote and knob screws with tops. Every part is cleaned either with the wire brush or fine sandpaper to get a uniform pleasing surface. Always keep a brass hand brush to use cleaning up screw threads and hard to get at places. Here I lap the contact surfaces of the plane body and frog with diamond paste (250 grit) so that all metal contact surfaces have maximum contact surface that is flat and smooth. IF the plane body was not submerged in phosphoric acid, here I use a cotton tipped applicator to put phosphoric acid in all threaded screw holes to get rid of rust inside there and then swab them out with clean water...leaving the phosphate salt finish inside as a primer to prevent rust and after dry, apply oil to all threaded holes.  These plane bodies will never rust inside these holes again. 

Separately I now begin the refinishing of the wood tote and knob by stripping to bare wood and applying 4 coats of amber shellac (or tinted shellac) applying thin coats at least an hour apart and after last coat waiting 24 hours before rubbing them out with 0000 steel wool and then applying paste wax to them and polishing them with a soft cloth. The final work on the plane is to make sure all the parts and plane body are cosmetically acceptable and to appy a couple of coats of paste wax to protect them from rust. I apply a bit of oil on the frog bottom and top to allow for movement of the frog (and plane iron on the frog for increased blade depth)  if necessary when woodworking. At the end of the clean up process I clean up the steel screw heads or brass ends of the threaded rods that attach the wood tote and knob by sanding with 220/320 grit, then polishing to a high gloss with strop polishing paste on my leather strop block. (see Paul Sellers on making a strop block)  I used to finish the wood with a high gloss polyurethane but nowadays I only use shellac, as it has such a better feel when hand rubbed with steel wool and waxed.

Anyway, tuning a plane is covered by the Rexmill.com folks and Paul Sellers has some great youtube videos that everyone should watch. Just search for Paul Sellers on youtube and you will see many titles. He is exceptional on illustrating how to set up your plane, sharpen the irons, and general plane use. His blog site has tons if information on everything traditional woodworking.  

Heres a few planes I have restored over the past few years... I usually don't take pics of rusty stained discolored  planes... I just go thru my process and take photos at the end. The last two (Bailey 4 1/2, and Bedrock 605 ) I actually stripped them and repainted them so they were completely restored to the max. I also had both reground by Tablesaw Tom.... good as a new Lie Nielsen. I sold the Bedrock on this forum for $200 because I was happy with a simple Bailey and the Bedrocks were so popular. 

www.brinkboatrepair.com

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[RodB]

Heres a photo of how one no 4 looked before restoration and tuning. This one was pretty nice compared to those covered with surface rust that require a lot of work to really clean them up and restore them. 


Heres a photo for comparison of the beginning when a plane is not too bad off and one that is finished.

[Adnick]

Thanks Jim, love those old ones that just need a light cleaning like your #6...I call those refurbs, on my Stanley's I never seem to do a full restoration ;-) lapping the sole and sometimes fixing a tote is as far as I get....

Rod: Good write up, and nice job on the restorations.

Regards,
Andy

[Derek Cohen]

From this:



to this



(this plane was featured in FWW mag a few years ago).


From this (LN #140 Mk1):



To this:




From this:




To:





Blinging up a #3 ..

Before ...



... and after ...



Lastly, a gungy, Stanley #51/52 with a broken frog ...






Rebuilt frog, and re-japanned ...





There are lots more, but that is enough.

Regards from Perth

Derek