What to paint plane handles with

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Petesky58

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Ayrshire
Could anyone tell me what you paint wooden plane handles with to bring them back to the original colour
 
If using blo make sure they're beech and not rosewood i made that mistake and it made rosewood go a nasty black colour
 
Each to their own but personally I prefer the feel of wood, rather than shellac/varnish against my palm. I use an old fashioned beeswax & turps furniture polish - partly because I hate the smell of BLO and partly because my brother makes the beeswax polish (Cambridge Traditional Products), so I always have a ready supply! Also good for the sole.
 
I'm also a fan of the wood feel and give the handles and sometimes the whole plane and anything within an arms reach, while I've got the rag in my hand, a rub over with a beeswax and mineral oil paste. It also has a little shellac added but that's because I use the same formula for chopping boards and use left-overs in the workshop.
 
De-waxed shellac is my preference (though I do prefer BLO for saw handles for some reason). If you have more modern plane handles (lighter wood rather than rosewood) then you can make a shellac mix with a little bit of leather dye mixed in (e.g. Fiebing's Leather Dye, Dark Brown)
 
only thing to watch is beeswax can be a little soft and leave fingerprints, I prefer hardwaxes like peacock wax or alphie shine, both of them completely non toxic and smell great.
 

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