Make new tools look older

[RickCarpenter]

I do more reconstruction/repair work for disasters, mission trips, etc than real woodworking, but I've found the value and just great pleasure in using older hand tools whenever possible. Hand tools come into great use on a worksite when electricity is scarce or non-existent, and sometimes they are faster for a single task than the tailed electrodevils. So, I have gone to buying the older, higher-quality hand tools of yesteryear to replace the **** called hand tools put out for the most part these days.

That being said, I bought a set of $10 Stanley workaday chisels, all bright and shiny with plastic handles. I have no illusion as to their quality, but they will only be used for digging out nails and other similar tasks that make real woodworkers cringe. However, I'd like to make them fit in better with my good quality older hand tools. I might make wood handles for them, but what can I do to tone down the bright steel? I don't want to rust them, but maybe gun barrel browning products? Thanks.

 

[Benchwayze]

Have a look here Rick:

http://www.pfonline.com/articles/pfd0025.html

Also:

Caswell Inc.
7696 Route 31, Lyons NY 14489 USA P: 315 946 1213

www.caswellplating.com

They have an offer on blackening kits ATM for US residents.


.......................................


Whether your chisels will then look like 'new black tools', I don't know,
but


HTH

 

[olie]

hey rick

being a gun man myself i know what your on about i think.

gun bluing or browning which is like an acid etch with is corrosion resistant.

http://www.birchwoodcasey.com/sport/index.html

hope this helps



Olie

 

[Benchwayze]

Yep... I think I'd go for black chisels myself. That might even start a new woodwork craze!

I think if I really wanted to make my chisels look old Rick, I might just dip them in water and let them rust for a day or so. (It doesn't take long as we know). Then I'd clean it off before it pits, so that an application of WD40 or similar would leave those grey/black marks behind. But having never purposely tried it (and I can't say the idea attracts) I couldn't guarantee a thing!

 

[Pekka Huhta]

Remember that you can't stain stainless - which means that bluing does not work with stainless or rust resistant surfaces.

At least the quick-blue-solutions do not work well on different steels. It does not have to be real stainless, even a slight alloy will do and the colour is quite dim or then the surface doesn't take any colour at all.

Industrial hot-bluing systems work on alloys better than cold blue. Principally it works by boiling the parts in raw lye with temperature between 130-150 deg C, so I would not recommend that for chisels either.

You just have to try a cold blue if it sticks to the chisels. If sending them away for bluing, you should ask the temperature from the company.

Pekka

 

[dunbarhamlin]

Citric acid?
Thing some folks don't like about it for derusting is that it leaves a greyish cast on the metal - perhaps just what you're after.

 

[Benchwayze]

I better stop eating oranges in the Workshop I think! :lol: :lol:
Ty DB