Evening Chris

I have a similar shoulder plane to yours which is great for cleaning up tenons and the odd job where I need a narrow plane.

If I could only take one plane to my desert island it would have to be a Stanley or Record 60 1/2 block plane. It fits nicely in to the palm of my hand and is held by my thumb and fore finger pressing in the depressions in the body. The low angle bevel up blade makes it very useful for cleaning the end grain of wood and general use. If you do not have one in your kit get one from Ebay, I think you will be pleased with haw handy they are.

The Stanley No. 5 undergoing a re-furb over the last 2 days is going well with about 2 hours both days. Now stripped down, de-rusted, sole flattened, body painted, handles cleaned up and one coat of shellac with a bit of stain mixed in. Next job sharpening the blade, another coat of shellac on the handles and re-assembly.

JP

Yes, I have a similar block plane.

What do you use for sharpening, John? I have a set of coarse, medium, and fine DMT diamond whetstones and an Eclipse honing, guide. The guide would be in my pocket on the way to the desert island where I am sure that I could find a suitable stone.

Evening Chris

Yes I have assorted oil stones and diamond plates. I wont use water on any sharpening stones as it is part of my battle against rust.

I use white spirit on everything I use for sharpening and then 3 in one oil afterwards. I purchased a big diamond heavy plate with 300 grit one side and 1000 grit on the other side from Amazon  a few months ago. I am now using that for everything.

Yes the Eclipse honing guide and a cheap copy from Ebay which is just as good is a must have.

Have you discovered the Paul sellers videos yet on You Tube. He does a plane restoration video.

The boss brought me his book as a Christmas present last year. Very idealistic and purist but great reading.

JP

I have a very strange issue with one of my planes.

It is a Record No.3 which I found in my late fathers workshop when I was clearing it, It was stored in a cloth bag as was badly corroded.

I spent ages cleaning all the corrosion off and restored it back ready for use. I oiled it and put it away in my tool cupboard. Weeks later I found it was corroded with black  spots of corrosion. I spent more time cleaning it again oiled it and put it back in the tool cupboard. I have done this several times with different oils and WD40. I found it in the same condition at the weekend and cleaned it again.

I found it today and the same block spots/dots of black corrosion despite me cleaning it at the weekend. wiping it off with white spirit thinking it must be contaminated with something and oiling it again.

None of the other planes in the tool cupboard suffer from this problem.

Any ideas what could be causing this as I am at a loss as to what it could be? 

John, that sounds very odd. Is the whole plane affected or just part?

Evening Chris

Only the cast iron body. It appears that the cast iron is reacting with the oil? I have tried 2 different thin oils and WD40.

I do not understand what is happening and have not experienced this before.

JP

I've a feeling cast iron is somewhat porous - could it be that it's picked up something corrosive before that the surface cleaning/oiling hasn't entirely removed?

   - Andy.

What else was in his workshop - is there a chance it has been exposed to battery acid or some gardening chemicals,  or has it been in a fire ? Or it may never have been fully cleaned after descaling at manufacture.

I'd be looking to strip the oil away - paraffin or white spirit,  and then washing up liquid plus toothbrush, or swarfega and then try and remove anything ionic - an alkali bath (washing soda), and then if you want a black finish phoshoric acid. or just remove the alkali with de-onised water and then re-oil...

If that does not work there is something odd.

Mike

Andy/Mike

No acids in the workshop, no gardening chemicals and no fire. No of the other planes in the same cupboard are affected. On the last clean at the weekend I did clean it off, after de-rusting again, with copious amounts of white spirit and clean rags before oiling. I am off on holiday for a week but will try the alkaline clean after de-rusting again. The corrosion is black not red so I am thinking some sort of magnetite?

I am think of using penetrating oil next time thinking about Andy's suggestion of the cast iron being porous. Is that a good idea?

JP