On the pitted vintage hand tools

[diytoolbox]

I have bought recently a set of vintage wood carving gouge set ADIS with 12 gouges in the set.
The gouges must be about 100 years old. All the gouges were heavily rusted when they arrived, so it took me days to clean the rust on the metal parts on the gouges. I used vinegar, WD40 and rough sand paper to clean the rust.

But when the rust is cleaned, I can see heavy pitting on all the gouges blades. The pittings are not structurally going to destroy the metals, but they are quite noticeable visually with the small holes everywhere.

Are there good methods in treating the pitting on the gouges? The only method I could think of was to further grind them under the belt sander, but it may also take off quite large amount of the metal on the gouges making them not strong for actual carving works.

So just going to sharpen and hone to use in wood carving works, but will the pitted gouges last for long? Or will they keep pitted further into more damages on the metal parts ?
Are there better way treating pitted vintage hand tools?

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Electroylis or Citric acid will convert it to black oxide, then a good wire brish will sort it out.

 

[mudman]

I have bought recently a set of vintage wood carving gouge set ADIS with 12 gouges in the set.
The gouges must be about 100 years old. All the gouges were heavily rusted when they arrived, so it took me days to clean the rust on the metal parts on the gouges. I used vinegar, WD40 and rough sand paper to clean the rust.

But when the rust is cleaned, I can see heavy pitting on all the gouges blades. The pittings are not structurally going to destroy the metals, but they are quite noticeable visually with the small holes everywhere.

Are there good methods in treating the pitting on the gouges? The only method I could think of was to further grind them under the belt sander, but it may also take off quite large amount of the metal on the gouges making them not strong for actual carving works.

So just going to sharpen and hone to use in wood carving works, but will the pitted gouges last for long? Or will they keep pitted further into more damages on the metal parts ?
Are there better way treating pitted vintage hand tools?

The pitting becomes an issue when it coincides with the edge. You will need to grind back to where there is no pitting before putting an edge on it.

 

[--Tom--]

If the potting is where the apex is formed you’ll need to remove it to get a clean sharp edge. If it’s on the concave surface then trickier than the convex.

I wouldn’t try to do the whole chisel - just where counts.

Grinding out pitting takes a bit of time - I redid some old chisels recently and added pics here:
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/threads/refurbing-chisels.149070/

 

[diytoolbox]

Yup, sounds making sense. The gouges are very sharp, and keep good edge well.
Pittings are around the metal blades body of the gouges, not on the edge thankfully, hence they can be used for wood carving works OK.

 

[diytoolbox]

Electroylis or Citric acid will convert it to black oxide, then a good wire brish will sort it out.

Aren't these for rust removal? Could pittings on the metal be treated with the methods?

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Aren't these for rust removal? Could pittings on the metal be treated with the methods?

I leave the pits, just get the rust away.
If I need to fill them I use old school car lead filler sticks and smooth off.

 

[diytoolbox]

I leave the pits, just get the rust away.
If I need to fill them I use old school car lead filler sticks and smooth off.

Seems that's all I can do too to the pits on the old tools.

 

[heimlaga]

Lead is not a good idea as enough heat the melt lead will damage the temper of the steel. Leave as is!

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Lead is not a good idea as enough heat the melt lead will damage the temper of the steel. Leave as is!

No it does not, if you do it right.

Lead used to be used on car bodies.
The trick is is the get the metal really clean, then a good active flux. Then gentle heat, the lead solder will flow.

Not blob up.

I have dome this method for years.

 

[diytoolbox]

Now I just use rough sand paper, and clean the rust off from the old tools.
If is not many tools to clean, then it seems work OK.
But if you have to clean say 20-30 rusty tools, then it could take too long and too much work.
In that case, maybe using the rust cleaning chemical kits would be better?
Home DIY solutions kits look seem to work great from the youtube videos.
No, ain't payin fortune for the commercial ones.

 

[diytoolbox]

For the pitted tools, if the pitting is not on the edge, then it seems fine in working.
But if the edge is pitted badly, then it needs some serious work to fill it or grind it.

Don't get pitted old tools unless they are free and very useful for something.

 

[heimlaga]

No it does not, if you do it right.

Lead used to be used on car bodies.
The trick is is the get the metal really clean, then a good active flux. Then gentle heat, the lead solder will flow.

Not blob up.

I have dome this method for years.

I am not talking about blobbing. I am talking about the fact that lead melts at something like 320 degrees celsius while many steel edge tools are tempered at around 200 degrees. If heated to a higher temperature the steel looses it's hardness and must be hardened and tempered anew. Getting the hardening and tempering right in a tool with unknown steel properties is a bit of a hit or miss affair. When heating the tool to hardening temperature your lead repair will melt out anyway and your work will be wasted.
Unless you restore tools for museum display never to be used...........

Of cause there are tools and tool parts that aren't hardened but you must know what is and what isn't

 

[Fergie 307]

Only real way to remove pits on anything that is hardened, or going to used in a bare metal state, is to grind them out. Whether that is desirable, will depend on the position and depth of the pits.
If the object will be painted then use car body filler, after thoroughly removing the rust either chemically, or by grit blasting. Sandpaper may remove the worst surface rust but won't get into the pits, unless you remove enough metal to get below the depth of the pits.
If the part is going to be plated then you can fill them by plating. This is a technique used on clocks etc, generally using copper.
You copper plate the pitted area, rub down with fine abrasive, replate. Each time you are building up copper in the pits, until they become flush with the surface.
Again the metal has to be rust free to start with, generally using acid.
Very time consuming, very expensive.
You can't do this at home as you can't plate copper directly onto steel without use of some very nasty chemicals. You can however plate the part with nickel, then copper plate over that.
Copper has the advantage that it is cheap and builds up quickly, even so you might need to repeat the process ten times or more to get a smooth surface. You can do the whole process with nickel but harder to rub down between "coats". Copper also has the advantage that being a contrasting colour it is easy to see where it is, and use that to identify where all the pits are, like using a contrasting guide coat when spraying paint. You can save time by coating any areas that are good with something like nail varnish, so you are only depositing metal onto the pitted area. If appropriate you can also take advantage of the fact that metal will be deposited more thickly directly opposite the anode.
Given the amount of work only going to be done on something that is valuable enough to warrant it, or for your own pleasure.