Oil for Tools

3-IN-1 OIL…… get in in any bike-shop. Cheap as chips and works like, well ….. oil.

All lubricants will oxidise sooner or later, some quicker than others.

Mineral oil. It works about as well as anything. Also, it’s cheap, universally available (in drugstores), doesn’t get gummy and doesn’t stink. Some folks use baby oil, which is just scented mineral oil and often cheaper than pure USP mineral oil since it doesn’t have to be pure enough for internal consumption.

Dave

It seems PTFE interferes with finishing. Avoid this.

It’s all about how many ways you can skin a cat, as the saying has it.

Let’s go back to the original poster’s question:
“What oil should I use to help prevent rust build up on chisels, planes, etc?”

The question is about stopping rust, (ferrous oxide) which is caused by three things coming together simultaneously: Iron, Water and Oxygen. If you can find a way to remove any one of those three, there will be no rust.

There are two basic answers emerging:
1 – Cover everything in an oil-substance – take your pick from the variations available – many of which will oxidise sooner or later.
or
2 – WD-40 – It does what it says on the tin: “Water Displacement (formula) No:40” -it, too dries out in time, messy but it works.

There is a third option. Take away one of the three constituents and that is to stop the water from the air getting to the Iron tools in the first place.

I now work in a heated workshop in mid-Wales and I don’t have this problem any longer, but previously my workshop was a draughty old garden-shed…. A rust trap in the winter to the point where originally I moved everything out for the duration of the winter.

Here’s my eventual solution; it’s not for everyone, but it works, and this is what I did.

I had a large wardrobe-sized cabinet which I kitted out to store all the vulnerable stuff, planes, chisels etc. allowing good air circulation inside. This meant perforating the shelves etc with 3/4 inch holes. The whole (outside, in my case to save inside space) was covered in 1 inch thermal insulation board; top, bottom, sides and both back and the doors. Next, was a shallow false bottom inside, also perforated with holes about 3 inches deep into which I wired a 15 watt Pygmy light bulb, attached to a plug-in timer. By hit and miss and looking at a thermometer I arrived at four half-hour on-times equally through the day. (NOTE: This was before modern regulations about filament light bulbs: you need the heat so it must be a filament type bulb – LEDs don’t work : no heat). I aimed to maintain an average temperature inside around 18- 20 degrees C. It is crucial to get circulating air, so no overcrowding!

The rationale is this: Water from the atmosphere can only condense on metal if the temperature of that metal falls below the dew-point temperature for that particular air-condition. Without going into some elaborate thermodynamics of air, you are simulating summer conditions within a small controlled space and preventing the metal temperature from dropping anywhere near the dew-point.

(If you want more info on the principles, do a Wiki on the term: ‘Psychrometric’)

Costly? A little bit. Elaborate? So what… it works. Worth it? Certainly, in terms of worry; how much are your tools worth to you? This way you can protect an entire tool-kit in one hit.

Hmmmm…… Dehums?

Can I be absolutely honest?

I’d buy a 40 gallon drum of 3-in-1 before a desiccant dehum.

Why?

They are intended for very basic, localised (table-top within a couple of feet) human comfort in HOT countries….. in colder climates their desiccant performance is often compromised by the lower temperatures. The desiccant material has a very finite moisture holding capacity. It falls off dramatically as it absorbs water to the point where they stop working. Plus they are not quick to regenerate, needing a lot of energy.

Similarly, other type of dehumidifier, using a refrigeration unit, is also designed for human comfort in hot climates. Being a refrigeration machine, their extraction rate, commensurate with the refrigeration capacity, also decrease drastically as the temperature goes down.

Add to all that the cost….. unless you can get a free dehum, that is.

Seriously, if they were that good for rust prevention, every woodworker would have one.

good luck

This is a little off topic: Sometimes, I must deal with mechanical assemblies in the wood shop on which I want to coat threads with a heavy grease to protect against galling and other such processes. Without thinking, I grabbed my tube of Phil Wood Waterproof Grease from my bike box, then later worried about silicone. I contacted the manufacturer and learned there is zero silicone. So, I can continue to use it on frog threads and things like that.

For day to day surfaces, I use both camelia oil (most often) and 3-in-1. Both work for me.

I’ve lined my toolbox with a material that looks like shelf liner, but is impregnated with a corrosion inhibitor.