Reply To: Restoring Nickel Plating
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Good luck with the rehab. Moisten the barkeepers for a bit on the steel and let it sit a half hour before scrubbing and you’ll have to do less of it.
Two other things that help are using a copper scrubby, and in a pinch, wadded up aluminum ( aluminium?) foil for scrubbing will help. Bioth materials are softer than either nickel or steel and won’t harm the finishes.
If you have green showing, the plane just might have a copper plating under the nickel. I forget when the change happened, but sometime in the Sweetheart era. My plane is the last Sweetheart era plane like yours (1923-33) I don’t think the fence is original. When I saw old catalogues, the only replacement fence offered was the old floral pattern one like mine, not the microadjust one. So I suspect somebody broke theirs and had to order the one I have. Below, for example, is a page from directions during the first three year of the Sweetheart era. ( the cover of the directions has an early Sweetheart logo). Note the fence like mine. I’m tempted to send in my order for a full set of cutters for $7.
I don’t really see any difference in operation. I usually set the fence to a spacer.
The other possibility that has been offered to me is that they were still selling planes with those fences well into the Sweetheart era even after production of the microadjust fences was in place. It may have been a cheaper option.
I’ve seen a bunch of planes with that combination. I think they did it to get rid of old stock.
The fence, btw, does have copper under the nickel which shows through on the sharp edges, and no flaking is evident on the fence, but I think I remember a little green on that part.
I don’t see Green NiO very often. I think it requires heat and lots of oxygen. Usually I see black nickel oxide, which is more likely present in an old garage in a musty tool box. The nickel that’s left also gets dingy looking, but that scrubs up to sort of a shine easily.
- This reply was modified 7 years ago by Larry Geib.
- This reply was modified 7 years ago by Larry Geib.