Ruined Japanning

[mudman]

Hi all.
Bought a Stanley 5 1/2 off eBay. Trouble was picture was very poor so was taking a chance. "Servicable" they said, "Heap of rust says I". :roll:

Anyway, no problem, the price wasn't too bad and I was expecting to do a little renovation work anyway. Trouble is that the body has rusted under the japanning in large swathes making the japanning lift off. In fact I would say that there is very little japanning that is still sound.
So, the question is, what should I do with it?
Should I remove all the japanning and replace it with something else Hammerite perhaps? (Ducks quickly).
Should I leave as much as possible but get rid of the rust? What about the resulting bare metal?

If anyone has any thoughts on this, I'd be grateful to receive them.

Cheers,
Barry

 

[Chris Knight]

Barry,

Re-japanning is perfectly possible.If you hang in there, someone like Alf, or even me will find a reference.

 

[mudman]

Been reading some of the stuff on Rarebear's site, interesting stuff.

Serious question though, is it acceptable to use something like Hammerite? Would it look wrong? Chip quickly? Affect the casting in some way?
Are there any alternatives?

Cheers,
Barry

 

[Alf]

Barry,

The simple answer is: do what you feel comfortable with, it's your plane. The Hammerite won't look quite the same, no, but it won't do any damage to the casting or its user status. Sounds like your 5 1/2 is in a similar state to my Record Stay Set 5 1/2; I just dealt with the rust to leave as much of the original paint as possible, and then waxed all the bare metal as usual. There was just more of it... :lol: Don't wory about it; I promise, whatever you do, I won't send round the lynching party. :wink:

Cheers, Alf

 

[Bean]

Barry
Hammerite used to produce a smooth version which may look better on the plane than the traditional stuff.

Bean

 

[Aragorn]

Last night I dreamt I had written 'Lord Of The Rings'. This morning I realised I'd just been Tolkein in my sleep.

:roll:

 

[mudman]

Alf,
That Tolkien joke was truly groan-worthy.
I guess I'll finish cleaning off all the rust. I'd been treating it rather delicatly in order to preserve as much of the original finish as possible. I think that large sections of bare metal suitably protected with wax will probably retain its old feel better than a new coating of some modern finish.
What I'm aiming for is a nice user in the end and for all the rust on top, there isn't any on the sides or base which I find quite strange and the base is actually very flat and will only need minimal fettling. Miles better than the new #6 I've got.
Another point is that if I was to make it look as good as new, then someone may think it is new and I don't really want that, now do I?

Now I think of it, the chrome has all but gone on the lever cap as well. What's the best way of dealing with this short of sending it away for re-chroming?

Thanks for the replies.

Cheers,
Barry

 

[Chris Knight]

Mudman,
You could try this
http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/readarticle.pl?dir=handtools&file=articles_117.shtml

 

[Alf]

Now I think of it, the chrome has all but gone on the lever cap as well. What's the best way of dealing with this short of sending it away for re-chroming?

D'you know, I haven't the foggiest. I just put up with the leprous appearance. Although now I come to think of it, most of my users now are the pre-chrome type anyway.

Bean, good point about the smooth Hammerite. I was assuming that's what we were all meaning, but it's worth clarifying just in case.

Oh, and apologies for the groan-worthy sig. :roll:

Cheers, Alf

 

[mudman]

Well, I had to leave it for a week due to a family holiday, but I more or less finished the plane last night.

All rust has been removed and I found a sort of nylon disc for paint stripping that was great for this. Extremely effective and very fast.
The rust on the blade, cap iron and lever cap has resulted in some very heavy pitting and I now know what Alf meant by leprous. The chrome on the lever cap is all but gone but without the rust, it doesn't look too bad.
The japanning problem was solved with the help of some smooth Hammerite which worked a treat. I decided against removing all the old japanning, there wasn't much left anyway, the Hammerite is thick enough to fill in the depressions quite well. I think that the end result actually looks pretty good.

All that is left is to sort out the blade and to clean up the sides and sole. A session on the waterstones is planned for next weekend, luckily I have a couple of coarse ones as there is a lot of sorting to do. I was happy to discover that the sides and sole are in really good condition. Absolutely square to each other and the sole is probably already as flat as I could get it without resorting to hand scraping. As there is just a very light coating of grime and surface rust all that these will be seeing are some scouring pads and maybe a cleaning agent of some sort.
I may have to buy a new blade in the end as the pitting is very extreme on it, I'll try first with the old blade as it would be nice to be able to keep it all as one.

Overall, I'm actually quite happy with it. The heap of rust has turned out quite nicely and I have the feeling that I'm going to end up with a really nice user.

What I do find strange though is that the top was in such a sorry state but that the sides and sole had been virtually untouched. Strange that.

I did take a picture before I left home this morning, I can, I'll try to upload it later.

Cheers,
Barry