how to clear up old hand saws

[Pappy]

Chaps,

A mates father inlaw past away recently and he has been having a clear up.. He gave me a number of old hand saws, They need a far bit of work to clean them up, surface rust and pitting.

What I the best way to clear up the blades?




Pappy

[Heavansabove]

Depends on the condition, this is how I do it:

1. Remove handle
2. Use a single edged razor blade in a holder to scrape the rust off - carefully to avoid scratching the blade, and length ways. Do this dry, but wear a mask and preferably outside
3. Using wet n' dry paper go up the grits to 400 (you can go as high as you like, but you will never polish out the pits) - wet, I use WD40 because I have lots. Clean off the slurry between grits
4. Use coarse-medium-fine Klingspor sanding blocks (buy from Jim Davey) to remove the scratches from the W n' D and smooth the plate - wet, cleaned between grits. Make sure the plate is really clean at this point
5. Apply Autosol paste with scrunched up aluminium foil, go at it until feels smooth. This seems to set up a chemical reaction, should not be aggressive enough to abrade the steel plate - hence get the plate smooth prior to this step. Clean thoroughly
6. Rub vigorously with scrunched up aluminium foil. Clean thoroughly
7. Use a metal polish to finish off. I use - no longer available - Beckett's microcrystalline ferrous wax polish.

Fixing a non-straight plate and sharpening are a bigger topic. Search the Hand Tool section here, and other fora.

Cheers
Peter

[pmcgee]

There are also web pages and videos. If you post some pictures, we can try to give you an idea of age, etc.

Cheers,
Paul

[Christos]

As mentioned above by Heavenabove he uses WD40. Can also use soapy water as a lubricant. Not my original idea from TTTG.