Painting Record Planes and vices

[okeydokey]

Hi good folks
I am restoring a rusty Record No 3 which is missing much of the blue enamel? paint?
I have found that the correct colour is Roundel blue BS381C 110, I can get it mixed (aerosol can only) in various flavours Cellulose, Acrylic and Synthetic Enamel. Then full gloss, semi gloss, satin and matt.
Not trying to get a showroom tool just a tidy user plane!
Suppose I can also use it to tidy up an old vice that lurks under the bench waiting to be cleaned and used

I think that for day to day use Acrylic would be best but which sheen level is most correct please?
cheers

 

[Cheshirechappie]

New ones seem to start out quite glossy, but more vintage ones mostly seem to have either lost their original gloss, or never had it in the first place.

Just my two pen'orth, but it's a tool, and function trumps worrying about other people's opinion on finish for me. I'd be inclined to finish it to your taste, since it's your plane!

 

[ED65]

I agree 100% with what Cheshirechappie says above: your plane, paint it how you like.

I have found that the correct colour is Roundel blue BS381C 110

Yes but which version of Roundel Blue?

That sounds stupid but the blue used on planes and vices by Record varied loads over the years from the very dark sort of Prussian blue colour seen on many earlier pieces to a sort of ultramarine in middle-period ones which seems to have gotten progressively lighter as the decades went on. And all of these various shades are supposedly Roundel Blue! It doesn't help that the spec for Roundel Blue changed sometime after the war, obviously someone (or a succession of someones) wasn't watching that the paint matched spec.

Anyways, you may not need to bother with a custom mix as apparently there's an off-the-shelf paint from Hammerite that's a good match to one version, Dark Blue Smooth or Blue Smooth. I've only seen it in pics but to me it does look dead on.

I think that for day to day use Acrylic would be best

Hard to know for sure but there's a good chance the cellulose would be toughest, with the synthetic enamel second and the acrylic third. Might not be much in it though and anyway the paint used doesn't have to be super super tough to withstand occasional but regular use.

 

[MattRoberts]

I painted my record vice in grey hammerite after restoring it, because I like it

 

[MrTeroo]

I used Hammerite for my vices

 

[Goldfinger234]

Personally, it’s racing green every time for my Record and Stanley planes

 

[RogerP]

Over the years Record used many different shades of blue so it takes quite some research to get the right original shade for any particular plane.

 

[SammyQ]

Whatever you use, DON'T use Hammershite metallic...my vice face-lift got about 10 days of average (amateur, week-end warrior) use before it started to shed pigment danduff all over the floor, work, tools.....it presently (2 years later) looks leprous and will have to be rubbed down and re-done. Right; like I have time for that. Avoid the new formulation Whammer-right metallic like the plague. Pity really, as the 'old' formulation on some of my older heavy tools has a similar shade that is diamond hard and resists all but a direct assault with a sharp edge. Maybe it was baked on and I should have befriended someone like a car re-finisher with a low-temp large oven?

Sam

 

[whiskywill]

Personally, it’s racing green every time for my Record and Stanley planes

But which shade of British Racing Green? My BIL had a Mini painted many years ago and asked for British Racing Green. The car came back painted in a green very unlike the colour he was expecting. The painter was able to show him it was British Racing Green but the Light version rather than the dark.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

From what I understand BRG is BS381 225 Light Brunswick green. There is also a Dark Brunswick green.

 

[Bm101]

I had a similar misunderstanding with a painter decorator some years back when he painted my porch British Racing Green. How we laughed. Of course, that was in simpler times when people didn't try to appear sophisticated by pronouncing their porch as a 'porcha'. Fools.

 

[Rob B]

I had a similar misunderstanding with a painter decorator some years back when he painted my porch British Racing Green. How we laughed. Of course, that was in simpler times when people didn't try to appear sophisticated by pronouncing their porch as a 'porcha'. Fools.

The old ones are the best