Cleaning Old Tools

[JRodz]

Rawhide,To clean up tools and metal parts in general (I work on old cars and bikes too), i use a plastic brush and "Barkeeper's Friend." It is very effective on blemishes, rust, and oxidation with less abrasiveness than steel wool or scrub pads. After that, I buff on the soft wheel using green rouge. I have restored everything from Harley parts, to classic car emblems, to 60+ year old shaving razors this way. The pieces cleaned up nice with minimum metal removal.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Instead of oiling , I would maybe use a car wax-less mess and transfer. Here in the very dry desert we generally don't have to worry about rust.

[tbmow]

You can also use buffing/polishing compounds if you have a dremel or a drill press. These come in different grits (or coarseness) and usually different colors represent different grits. Depending on how rough the surface is and how smooth you want it to be determines which color you start with. Start with the coarser compound and proceed to the finer compound.

The compound is some type of abrasive (different types of abrasives for different grits and for different types of metals being polished) that is mixed with a wax. The wax is colored, like a candle, so that you can quickly determine which grit (color) you need. Of course you have to do this quite a bit to memorize the color/grit combinations.

You need some buffing wheels (simply circular pieces of cloth sewn together to form a "wheel"), and you need one wheel for each color of compound. The process is easy: hold the stick of compound against the spinning wheel for about 1 second, and then polish. After polishing with a rougher (coarser) compound, you proceed to the next finer compound (and a new wheel), and so on. The purpose of one wheel per compound is so that you will not have coarse grit scratching your metal when you try to use a finer compound.

If you decide to use a drill press, look up on the web the safe way to position yourself and the piece you are polishing so that the piece does not get thrown into you when it snags the wheel. Because the wheel for a drill press is larger, the piece being polished can get hot very quickly. The dremel tool does not produce that much force so it is not an issue for the size piece you showed above.

You can also use buffing/polishing compounds if you have a dremel or a drill press. These come in different grits (or coarseness) and usually different colors represent different grits. Depending on how rough the surface is and how smooth you want it to be determines which color you start with. Start with the coarser compound and proceed to the finer compound.

The compound is some type of abrasive (different types of abrasives for different grits and for different types of metals being polished) that is mixed with a wax. The wax is colored, like a candle, so that you can quickly determine which grit (color) you need. Of course you have to do this quite a bit to memorize the color/grit combinations.

You need some buffing wheels (simply circular pieces of cloth sewn together to form a "wheel"), and you need one wheel for each color of compound. The process is easy: hold the stick of compound against the spinning wheel for about 1 second, and then polish. After polishing with a rougher (coarser) compound, you proceed to the next finer compound (and a new wheel), and so on. The purpose of one wheel per compound is so that you will not have coarse grit scratching your metal when you try to use a finer compound.

If you decide to use a drill press, look up on the web the safe way to position yourself and the piece you are polishing so that the piece does not get thrown into you when it snags the wheel. Because the wheel for a drill press is larger, the piece being polished can get hot very quickly. The dremel tool does not produce that much force so it is not an issue for the size piece you showed above.