Restoring Nickel Plating
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Tagged: combination plane, Nickel, Stanley 45
- This topic has 22 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 1 month ago by Byron.
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Hi
Ive been looking through previous discussions for oppinions on how to deal with old nickel plating.
I have two Stanley 45 Combination Planes. The first one is badly tarnished, with long arms, and came with only one beading blade fitted. The second one looks barely used, almost new, with short arms, and it came with two sets of blades. The tarnished one is now supplying spares to the good one (fence adjustment screw etc.).
The problem is that I cant really get the rust off the nickel on the tarnished one. Ive tried citric acid, which usually works wonders. The nickel is coming off in places in large flakes. I’m reluctant to use abrasive papers, because the surface is not flat, and the nickel is quite thin. I understand that Stanley didnt put a copper undercoat on the steel (which is evident here). Is there a way of easily restoring the nickel, getting the remaining nickel to shine, or at least getting it into a better condition?
Google says I can re-do the nickel plating (theres an Indestructable instructional video on this), but that seems a bit extreme, and I dont want to damage the wooden tote by removing it.
I’d like to have both planes in service, the one plane is in really good condition, so I’d like to have one that I can really put through its paces and dont have to be prissey with. Now that I have one complete plane, I can make replacement parts using the a physical item as a template to complete the tarnished plane (fence adjustment screw, etc) so that I can use and abuse that one.
If I cant fix the nickel, I was thinking of painting the tarnished one – but if I cant stop the oxidation of the nickel – the paint will just flake off as the nickel-rust grows under it.
The experience and opinions of the members would be appreciated.
Thanks
18 September 2017 at 6:13 pm #316235You didn’t mention pitting, so I assume there is none. You can’t put back lost metal.
There is probably a coating on the plane that is preventing the acid from working.
Make sure you have cleaned any wax and oil off the plane before the citric bath. I use acetone followed by Dawn detergent, which contains a mild petrochemical solvent in it ( it is often used to decontaminate wildlife oil spill victims).
Citric products might also work, but I have no experience with them.Then try a SOFT BRASS wire wheel on the loose nickel before another citric bath, this time with a couple drops of the Dawn added. That should oconvert all the brown rust Fe2O3 to black rust Fe3O4′ which will wipe off with 0000 steel wool.
If you can’t find a soft brass wheel a suede cleaning brass brush will work with some elbow grease. Go easy around the rosewood bits.
The baths won’t harm the rosewood other than the acetone removing removing old finish and it will do well with a BLM finish at the end.
Follow up with a buffing wheel and green buffing compound to bring the steel and what nickel is left up to polish. You could even go first with a step coarser grit compound. It will be pretty hard to tell the difference between the nickel that’s left and the polished steel.
I have a 45 I did this with and you have to look twice to see there is nickel missing. I’ve done this on plated braces as well.
Be sure to wax and keep the plane oiled when you are done. Wait a few days for the rosewood to dry before refinishing that. I use a 5-1 walnut oil to beeswax finish. (I get walnut oil from the grocery store) for the entire plane and maintain the metal with any light oil.
( I’m allergic to the driers in modern linseed oil)
Here’s my 45, which is missing almost all the nickel from the Stanley logo and other parts of the plane. It went through all these steps maybe 20 years ago.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.18 September 2017 at 6:39 pm #316253I forgot to mention Barkeeper’s friend, which also works wonders cleaning black patina/rust from metal. It contains Oxalic acid.
That photo shows a little new tarnish, so I guess another cleaning with barkeepers friend is in order…
Thanks Larry.
As always your advice is brilliant. Your plane looks great! I noticed no fence adjustment screw, and different detailing to the below-the-line sweethearts that I have. It must be an older model?
I’ll give your method a go and let you know how it progresses. There should be very little pitting if any as the rust is mostly green, which is presumably the colour of Nickel rust (iron-red and copper-green). In other words I don’t think that the rust has gone through the nickel for the most part; and where it is flaking, the rust is consistent and smooth.
I’ve managed to get the arms moderately cleaned off and there is some light pitting on these. If there was a coating on the plane it would have worn off these first allowing more rusting. I used abrasive paper on them, which would have stripped what remained of the coating before I got to the rust.
I’m going to start by oiling the good plane, so I dont have to do that one too.
Regards
I used Evaporust on a Stanley No. 49 T&G plane and had good results. The plane had significant rust. There are places that are now dark, which is where I think the rust penetrated the nickel plating. My standards aren’t particularly high: I wanted the rust to be gone so that it would not transfer to the work and to have a cared-for plane, but I was not seeking to restore it to original condition. Remember that Evaporust is multi-use. You can return the used solution to the container and use it again for other tools. There are instructions and FAQs online for Evaporust.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.By the way, I removed the wooden knob before soaking. Otherwise, I think I just chucked the tool in a bucket of Evapo-goo. No scrubbing or prep. Of course, every case is different. There was enough rust that I had to repeat the “don’t shear off…don’t shear off” mantra on several parts of the plane during rehab, especially the blade tensioners and the flip-around fence, as things were worked free.
19 September 2017 at 5:15 am #316690Good 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 6 years, 7 months ago by Larry Geib.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by Larry Geib.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.19 September 2017 at 6:23 am #316719[quote=316451]I used Evaporust on a Stanley No. 49 T&G plane and had good results. The plane had significant rust. There are places that are now dark, which is where I think the rust penetrated the nickel plating[/quote]
I think that’s probably nickel oxide, not ferrous. I don’t know how to remove that chemically, but try the Barkeepers and some scrubbing.
I’ve always wondered how well your plane model works. Is it easy to use and versatile for different width planks?
19 September 2017 at 7:33 am #316742[quote quote=316672]Thanks Larry, for the Barkeeper’s Friend tip!
I have lots of black patina to remove, but never tried Barkeeper’s. Only ever used it on teacup stains.[/quote]
Move out of London to someplace the water is softer. I understand Liverpool doesn’t have problems with tea staining cups.
😉
I think that’s probably nickel oxide, not ferrous.
I tried some Barkeepers on the handle for 30′ then scrubbed with Al foil. The black improved in many places, so I think you are correct.
I’ve always wondered how well your plane model works. Is it easy to use and versatile for different width planks?
I’ve not used it for a real project yet. I came upon it at an antique store at a very low price because of its condition and purchased it hoping it could be rehabbed with an eye towards Paul’s trick of using a small T&G plane to cut and set straight inlays. It has only been used on a couple scraps.
The #49 has no adjustability. It cuts a fixed size tongue/tenon and matching groove at an unchangeable, fixed distance from the edge of the work. If the work is 1/2″ thick (I think?) the tongue and groove will be centered. Otherwise, they will be off center. The plane uses two completely independent blades. So, it is quite possible to set the plane lopsided. With a little care, I don’t think that should be a real issue, but I cannot say with certainty. My guess is that the plane will do its one task easily since there’s really nothing to set other than the two irons. My plan was to use this to cut the inlay (tongue) but then use a grooving plane if I wanted the inlay to be at a difference distance than what the plane provides.
The plane uses two completely independent blades.
To clarify: There isn’t a tonguing blade and a grooving blade. Instead there are two narrow, straight blades about 3/16″ wide that are held with two independent tensioners. When the fence is in one position, the two blades cut down the two shoulders of the tongue. The fence is then swung around in such a manner that only one iron will be exposed for cutting. In this configuration, the plane plows the matching groove. The magic is in the fence, which is dimensioned and pivoted in a manner that centers everything to give centered T&G’s on 1/2″ stock. So, once you have it setup, you should be good to go to bang out both T’s and G’s without fiddling back and forth. As mentioned, I don’t feel I have enough experience to declare one way of another yet. “Looks promising” is what I’ll say.
19 September 2017 at 9:17 pm #317170Thanks. As long as you register off one side of the work, off center t&g doesn’t sound like much of an issue.
I guess it could save time. When I’m doing a project, I have to set my 45 and a plough plane ( Record 43) until I’m sure I’m done.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by Larry Geib.
19 September 2017 at 9:39 pm #317190Thanks. As long as you register off one side of the work, off center t&g doesn’t sound like much of an issue.
I guess it could save time. When I’m doing a project, I have to set my 45 and a grooving plane ( Record 43) until I’m sure I’m done.
I would use 0000 wire wool on it, coated with metal polish something like autosol, works a treat for old zink or nickel plated tools, I did this on my record no44 and it ended up looking almost new. This was after it went through a brass wheel on a grinder for the initial cleanup.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by btyreman.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by btyreman.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by btyreman.
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