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Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge

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Refurbishing old chisels

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Refurbishing old chisels

#1

Refurbishing old chisels

Guy

>Hello folks, After reading everybody's comments and doing some more research I decided to get some old chisels to replace my Craftsmans, specifically Stanley Everlast/Everlasting and some 720s. The ones I have gotten in so far are in pretty good shape. I will be using the "scary sharp" method to flatten and sharpen. A couple of them however have some rust on them. Any ideas on how to remove the rust without damaging the metal? I remember reading an article on electrolysis a while ago but for the life of me I can't find it. I'll be turning some new handles for the 720s. The Everlasts/ings feel really nice in hand for me. Any info/links on how to freshen these up will be greatly appreciated. I don't really care how the "collector" value will be affected since they will be my users. Thanks in advance for all your help/advice, Guy

Re: Refurbishing old chisels

#2

Re: Refurbishing old chisels

Kevin French, Antrim NH

>Where IS the rust?

If it on the back, has it pitted it back? If it has you're looking at a set of roughing out chisels.

You can use SS to clean off the rust. Start a little high 220 or 110/100 if that's not cutting it drop down a grit or two. At these lower grits old Belt Sander belts work great for the tough work of removing rust. They glue up to glass quite nicely.

Re: Refurbishing old chisels

#3

Re: Refurbishing old chisels

dave caudill

>Good old fashioned sandpaper should do the trick. I use it regularly for front back and sides. Like you said they are user chisels and all you want to do is clean them up for use. I have at times used a brass brush/wheel in my drillpress but usually sandpaper does what I need to do.

Remember once you get the backs flat you should never have to use sandpaper on them again. Like most who post here I flatten mine to my highest waterstone which is 8000 grit.

Dave

Re: Refurbishing old chisels

#4

Re: Refurbishing old chisels

Jay Samuels

>Use 220 or 180 grit open coat garnet paper lubricated with 3 in 1 oil, to remove all the surface rust. When all the surface rust is off, then you can determine if there is pitting that needs to be lapped out.

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