New Lie-Nielsen somewhat tarnished - is this normal?? Pics

[paulc]

Hello,

I’ve bought my first new high quality plane - a #4 1/2 form Lie-Nielsen. The Bronze Cap-Iron is somewhat tarnished - if that’s the correct term. See pics below.

Is this normal?

The rest of the plane looks fine and I’m dying to try it out but as it was so expensive I thought I’d check to see if this is of any concern before using it.

Thanks

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

It's been stood somewhere for a while I reckon, that's a bit of oxidation and maybe even some condensation, fly muck etc. It wont do it any harm and frankly, you bought it to do a job of work and not to look shiny right?

If you want it to look shiny, take some brasso to the thing and clean it up.

I've got two LN's and they're a hell of a lot more tarnished than that so it will happen with time anyway...hence my reasoning it's been on a shelf for a while

 

[D_W]

Not out of the ordinary, just had some shelf time. Ditto to the above, just light metal polish to clean it up.

If you see 10 year old LN planes that look new, it's because someone's not using them. If you use them, the bronze parts will get tarnished from touching.

 

[thetyreman]

I personally would go over it with 0000 steel wool with some pure alcohol to clean it up, that should remove it, autosol is my favourite brand of metal polish, you can get a ridiculous mirror shine with it.

 

[heimlaga]

If it isn't tarnished already it will soon become a wee bit tarnished as you use it and keep it on a shelf.

A tool is intended to be used. Performance counts!

 

[paulc]

Thanks for that. That is pretty much what I thought. A bit disappointed about the cap screw - I like to keep them in good order but looking forward to get cracking.

 

[Rhyolith]

My experience is LN planes rust/oxidise REALLY easily.

I believe the cost is not wildly different from the likes old Records and Norris when they were new (obviously taking inflation into account). Making tools worth the time of day is just expensive.

 

[adidat]

Whats wrong with the cap screw?

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

That's what I was wondering??

 

[iNewbie]

If you look closer at the pic it has some small leverage marks/damage - for want of a better term. For a new plane it shouldn't be there, as small as it is. As for the Cap Iron marks, its un-lacquered bronze so its going to oxidise.

 

[adidat]

Oh i see wrap abit of tin can around the shaft then put it in a drill chuck then just run over some fine sandpaper or wire wool and it will shine like a new penny.

Adidat

 

[JonnyW]

My LN bronze no. 4 had slight tarnishing on the lever cap also. What can you do?, the things are handled non stop during their construction and QC checking, so it's going to happen.

The screw does look 'slightly' over handled. They over tighten the cap screw for transit reasons, so maybe an over zealous worker.

I do sympathise with you though; you pay eye watering amounts of money for something that is quite beautiful and could easily sit on a shelf in your living room (although I admit I am very strange), so you want it pristine. Getting the first scratch or ding will always hurt you more than the plane.

Jonny

 

[ED65]

My experience is LN planes rust/oxidise REALLY easily.

This popped into my head last night and I just wanted to check, is this in comparison to other new tools or compared with older stuff?

 

[Bodgers]

If I'd sunk this kind of money on a Lie Nielsen, I'd want it perfect out of the box - regardless of what it looks like after use. I'd get on to them ASAP.

I bought a Festool Domino recently and it came with the Systainer slightly split in one corner. Yes it was only the case that gets roughed up anyway, but this was a Festool. They bent over backwards to change it asap.

Companies like Festool and Lie Nielsen will do this, because they sell great stuff and they protect the reputation of it.

Sent from my MI 3W using Tapatalk

 

[RossJarvis]

I need to take a belt sander to my LN block plane every month or so to get the rust off. When it turned up the mouth wouldn't stay ln position either. I put Mr Grumpy head on [-X and fired off a peeved email. The nice lady who sent the reply which helped me fettle it to working helped calm the bile. And explaining that they're a small company who do try to do their best helped.

I'm usually very tolerant of the odd mistake if the issues are patiently resolved.

 

[Jacob]

Hello,

I’ve bought my first new high quality plane - a #4 1/2 form Lie-Nielsen. The Bronze Cap-Iron is somewhat tarnished - if that’s the correct term. See pics below.

Is this normal?

The rest of the plane looks fine and I’m dying to try it out but as it was so expensive I thought I’d check to see if this is of any concern before using it.

Thanks

It's got wet somehow. Send it back. You are paying for perfection (in theory :roll: ) so you should insist on getting it.

NB it won't affect performance in any way unless it's rusty in other places too.