We thought you might be interested in our process for restoring and old infill plane for the shop. This article covers our process for this plane. Please note that this process may vary depending on the type of plane and its condition.
This was to the sorry condition we found the plane in.So first was carefully scraping off the rust. We love these Stanley scrapers for this task. The angle is important as you don’t want to dig into the body, so keep the handle low and make sure you don’t run into any proud pins or screws. Keeping the blade sharp helps cut through the rust. The more you can do with the scraper the easier the next stage becomes. You can look at chemical rust removers but most of these either rely on acids or create acids via a chemical reaction to remove rust. Acids generally make imperfections more noticeable – they deepen holes and scratches. Acids can also leave the surface of the metal a grey colour which would damage the value of the plane. The only way to get rid of the grey colour is to use abrasives, so you may as well start there. Anything abrasive (even very fine) has the opposite effect to an acid. It reduces the visible signs of damage or defects. It also allows you to keep the patina intact which is really important to collectors. Once we feel we have removed enough rust we move to wire wool. We use different grades depending on the metal, the application and the level of cleaning we need to do. With just a bit of a run the metal of the infill plane starts to show through.So when your scraper isn’t enough we resort to tile. Select a tile (or other flat surface) that’s at least as big as your plane. Using contact adhesive we stick abrasive paper to the tile. This then becomes a large and flat abrasive surface which we can use to recondition the plane’s sole with. Remember to retract the iron and then move the plane backwards and forwards over the surface as you would if you were using the plane. The sole of this plane was in particularly bad shape. We set about scraping it, but it wasn’t going to be enough. That’s good, because we can show you what we resort to.Eventually the good metal will show through. You can see that this sole has some rather large corrosion pits left behind. Leave them. they won’t do the plane any harm (unless they happen to be right at the mouth), but you definitely don’t want any acid making them deeper. Many people get hung up on having a perfectly flat sole and a perfectly shiny surface. It’s fine if that’s your aim, but it won’t improve the planes performance. It will however unnecessarily wear the sole and shorten the life of the tool. Remember many of these tools outlasted our grandfathers or even great grandfathers. If we look after them, they will definitely outlast us. If you want to get a bit of a shine to your sole, then try Autosol (again no affiliation). I’ve used this for years on a wide variety of metals and found it excellent. You could work up through wet and dry grits (320 and higher) to achieve a shine and sometimes we do. The finished (if imperfect sole). It may come complete with corrosion pits, but its clean, flat and ready to work.This plane has some beautifully fussy scrolled metal around the ends, so we are back to the wire wool for this. There’s not much else will get into the awkward shape. Next comes treating the wood by removing the dirt and paint splashes. If it’s in a sorry state (as this one is) we start with methylated spirits (denatured alcohol). Methylated spirits will break down a shellac finish, so we wouldn’t use it if we were worried about the original finish. If you only give it a quick wipe even shellac finishes will be mostly left intact. Sometimes paste wax, a bit of soap and water or Nifti All Purpose Cleaner is all it takes (we have no product affiliation). This infill plane was pretty mucky so it was always going to take a bit extra. To remove any persistent paint splodges we may look at gently scraping the paint (trying to leave the finish beneath it intact). We may also resort to acetone. Acetone will remove almost anything, but its aggressive nature means that we use it sparingly. We often resort to cotton buds dipped in acetone so we make sure it only goes exactly where it needs to. So now the wood is cleaned and the metal is rust free. Next, the horn of the plane’s hande has seen better days. It’s still intact, so we won’t really repair it. Instead, we smooth it out by filing the wood. A file is great at shaping wood. Unlike a rasp, it’s not very aggressive so allows you to gently shape the wood without losing too much. Also, unlike a rasp, it won’t gouge out the wood. You could used sandpaper here, but we find the shaping process more difficult with sandpaper. The rasp allows you to see what you are doing, but it also encourages you to work with the grain thereby getting the best possible finish. Still doesn’t look too pretty, but the finish will improve that again. We could keep filing, but we are always conscious of not removing or altering too much. So now we are ready for refinishingSome planes we french polish, but unfortunately this doesn’t warrant it. Instead this is given a couple of heavy coats of shellac applied with a soft-haired brush. It doesn’t look very pretty at this stage and you might wonder if we haven’t spoilt the plane. The surface of the shellac has many imperfections and doesn’t feel or look great. However, between coats we give it a rub down with very fine wire wool. That takes off the thick looking sheen and the surface roughness. This plane has a hinged wooden retainer for the wedge. We needed to make sure we didn’t get any shellac around the hinge otherwise it might not swing properly. Don’t forget to refinish the plane’s wedge. Same treatment as the plane body. A couple of coats of shellac painted on with a rub down with fine wire wool after each coat is dry.The last stage is to wax the finish and this is what you end up with. Beautiful looking and a finish in-keeping with the age of the plane. After this it’s a matter of sharpening the blade and putting her to work.
I was in the lucky position to be able to commission a handmade Mathieson style Mitre Plane by Bruce Neville. This is my experience of the process and the results. This is a completely independent review.
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