Last time I visited my brother, he handed me an old plane that he wasn’t using and that was gathering rust. Disused, but a good plane.
Here’s one view of the plane. It’s a Stanley plane, made in the USA. The markings on it say “Bailey No 4”. According to an online source, it is a Stanley Bailey Type 20 Handplane manufactured in the ’60s.
Viewed from the side, the rust is very obvious.
Step 1: Complete disassembly. The rust is everywhere and there is some other schmutz on some of the surfaces.
Step 2: The next move is to drop all the metal parts into a bath of rust remover. I let them sit for about 24 hours.
Rinsed and dried off, they look a lot better. The rust is almost all gone but there is still some surface stuff that wasn’t rust to start with.
Step 3: Some work with a wire brush and sandpaper has cleaned up the surfaces. Add a very light coat of oil to inhibit future rust.
I may have left some scratch marks in the surface, but I can live with that. This thing isn’t going into a museum; it’s going into my shop.
Step 4: Reassembly.
Looking good.
So, how well does it work?
