Cleaning older tools.

M

M.Rodriguez

Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
18
Hello everyone,

I hope this is the right forum but i got a question i would like to ask. My grandfather worked with metal for much of his life after WW2. I have all of his Mill,lathe,dies,taps,micrometer,protractors ect. These tools have been in storage for some time now. I went through my dads toolbox's and found this wonderful set of tools for my use. The only problem is some of the steel/iron tools have rust on them a little. Like the combination squares have a lil bit of what looks like crystalized rust on it. None of the rust is deep but i am wondering what the proper cleaning method would be without erasing all the marks on the tools themselves. Also if i can get them clean what should i coat the steel with to keep them going for another 50 years.
 
Welcome to Bladeforums! :)

I guess this is as good a forum as any for the question. Should be interesting. My brother got our great-grandfather's carpentry tools, in the wood boxes he made to carry them. Since he restored them to put them back in use, he used techniques that might not be best if the tools were meant to be kept as antiques.

But I will leave the answers to more qualified people!
 
M.Rodriguez said:
The only problem is some of the steel/iron tools have rust on them a little. Like the combination squares have a lil bit of what looks like crystalized rust on it. None of the rust is deep but i am wondering what the proper cleaning method would be without erasing all the marks on the tools themselves.
Click to expand...

Older tools have a certain....... look, that newer tools can't replicate. Part of it is the patina of age, part in the inherent quality of days gone by that is no longer available, except by buying older tools.

First, see what can be done by covering the larger, rustier tools with an old bath towel soaked in transmission fluid. Keep the towel soaked (put it on a big plastic garbage bag so it doesn't bleed everywhere). It will take several days for the rust to soften to the point where you can wipe off the worst of the rust.

For the combination squares, put the small ones in a five pound coffee can full of new tranny fluid. After several days, take them out, wipe them gently, over and over again, with an old, clean towel. Drop by a garage sale and grab a grocery sack full of towels.

Tranny fluid (use Dextron, the red stuff, brand doesn't matter) will soften and make the rust easier to rub away, without damaging metal or markings. There are better rust removers, but not for old tools.

Don't try to get them shiny new, just leave the patina, and get rid of the scale. Use and handling will take care of the rest. Occasionally clean and wipe them down as you would any other tool, and in a year or so, they'll look as they should.

IOW, clean them a little at a time after the initial cleanup. They'll get better with time. The main thing is, use them . That will cure the current rust, and prevent the future rust.

What a fabulous gift. I hope you enjoy bringing them back to their original glory.
 
I have seen tools at fleamarkets that were coated with the Kramers antique wood finish. It has beeswax and maybe turpentine in it. They were a little shiney but still had the patina on them. These had been cleaned prior to the coating, maybe with trany fluid. I have used coke to get rust out of some small castiron pots.
 
AllenMcB said:
Older tools have a certain....... look, that newer tools can't replicate. Part of it is the patina of age, part in the inherent quality of days gone by that is no longer available, except by buying older tools.

First, see what can be done by covering the larger, rustier tools with an old bath towel soaked in transmission fluid. Keep the towel soaked (put it on a big plastic garbage bag so it doesn't bleed everywhere). It will take several days for the rust to soften to the point where you can wipe off the worst of the rust.

For the combination squares, put the small ones in a five pound coffee can full of new tranny fluid. After several days, take them out, wipe them gently, over and over again, with an old, clean towel. Drop by a garage sale and grab a grocery sack full of towels.

Tranny fluid (use Dextron, the red stuff, brand doesn't matter) will soften and make the rust easier to rub away, without damaging metal or markings. There are better rust removers, but not for old tools.

Don't try to get them shiny new, just leave the patina, and get rid of the scale. Use and handling will take care of the rest. Occasionally clean and wipe them down as you would any other tool, and in a year or so, they'll look as they should.

IOW, clean them a little at a time after the initial cleanup. They'll get better with time. The main thing is, use them . That will cure the current rust, and prevent the future rust.

What a fabulous gift. I hope you enjoy bringing them back to their original glory.
Click to expand...
I've never used ATF for this, but this basic approach sounds like very good advice to me; excellent reply, Allen. I was going to suggest a penetrating oil, but otherwise kind of the same thing.

Depending on the tool and the degree of rust and corrosion, you might consider a bit of polishing/smoothing with emery cloth, but with use I think you'll find they get better with time, and have a pleasing character like Allen says. IMO it's a special enjoyment to use older, well-seasoned tools ... I always feel like the craftsman who used them before me is pleased to see them still being put to good use. :)
 
Loosearrow said:
I have used coke to get rust out of some small castiron pots.
Click to expand...

Which brings me to another thought, related to the OP, but now slightly askew to the original question.

A few years ago, I saw some beautiful, super clean, older dutch ovens at a flea market. I got to visiting with the stall owner, and he showed me some really dilapidated looking rust buckets under his table. He explained that the beautiful, black, well seasoned ones I saw on top had recently been like the crummy rust buckets under the table.

Then he shared his secret with me.

He waited until his wife left the house, and put one of the crummy cast iron dutch ovens in his kitchen oven, and set it on "self clean".

Once things cooled down to where he could open the oven door again, he was able to just wipe off all the rust, and he had clean cast iron left. Then he'd season it with vegetable oil, pop it in a hot gas grill for an hour, let it cool, and he was done. the process, which took several hours to complete, involved only about twenty minutes of actual work time, and that was mainly turning knobs and moving dutch ovens around.

Since a self cleaning oven hits a temp between 800-900 F, it's not enough to cause annealing, but I don't know what it would do to tool temper.
 
I've had good luck spraying them with WD-40 and letting them sit for a couple/few days. Then I wipe them down to see if any pitting has occurred. If so, that can not be removed without abrasives which would destroy the original finish. If no pitting has occurred I wipe them clean with old rags (old t-shirts are great 100% cotton).

0000 steel wool or synthetic (scotch brite type pads) are useful also. Try to avoid anything that scratches the steel.

For preservation, I prefer Starrett oil. It is great stuff. Mineral based.

Never tried transmission fluid, but it seems like it would work.

Congratulations and good luck.

Peter
 
peterinct said:
I
Never tried transmission fluid, but it seems like it would work.
r
Click to expand...

There are a lot of other oils that would work better and faster than trans fluid, but I always have a quantity of that around, and it's cheap to use in bulk, so I use it for soaking tools in. I make up the difference in results back leaving it in longer. Two quarts of tranny fluid is pretty cheap... two quarts of any of the really good stuff, well, it might not be in the budget for one time use. :)
 
peterinct said:
............0000 steel wool or synthetic (scotch brite type pads) are useful also. Try to avoid anything that scratches the steel......
Click to expand...

The white pads are just nylon, no added abrasive. They are what I have used for cleaning up rusted tools in the past.

Bruceter
 
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