Old Stanley Marking Gauge

[funkychicken]

Saw it in an antique shop, pretty old, not very good condition, can just make out the measurements and the Stanley Badge.

Should I buy it ($6)
Should I restore it?
And If so how am I to restore it?

*sorry no pics*

[forunna]

eh, If its usable you cant go wrong for 6 bucks, does it have character?

[funkychicken]

More character than... ...no analogy comes to mind

[jmk89]

How to restore?

Depends on what you want it to look like.

How I would do it:

wash in warm water using a soft brush to get off the loose dirt and crud - don't scrub hard, you may remove decals etc.
look at it closely and decide whether it is a "collector" or a "user".
if it's a "collector" put it up for sale - you will get more than $6 and use the profit to buy a user.
if its a user, check that it is square (you do have a dead accurate square don't you, it is essential if you are going to restore a square - have a look at Stu's podcast (http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=60080)). If it isn't decide how to make it square. If you can't, throw it away. If you can get it square, do that first (with an old square of my Dad's, I put marking blue on the blade, marked the correct line for the blade to be square and filed it back to that line and then jointed it).
then decide what you are going to do to remove rust and protect against rust. If, like here, I can't use electrolysis to get rid of the rust, I usually wire wheel most of the rust off, perhaps suspend the blade in a citric bath to get rid of the rest (make sure that you keed the wood out of the acid) then use cold gun blue.
then do the woodwork - If the edges are badly nicked, I might mark a line about 2mm back from the edge, shave the wood back to that line with a combo of planes and scrapers and maybe screw a brass edging strip along it - it won't be a Stanley then, but it might be much better to use.
I usually strip off the varnish and stain, sand smooth to about 800 grit and then use U-Beaut sanding sealer, Hard Shellac and Trad Wax. But if there are decals etc, then (if I haven't sold it on eBay to some daft collector), I won't do much to the wood, except keep it clean.

[prozac]

Hi FC, i don't know anything about restoring old tools but I did notice something on this site; http://www.wkfinetools.com/tRestore/miscTools/MarkGauge/markGauge1.asp

Has pictures too.

prozac

[dennford]

Hi FC, i don't know anything about restoring old tools but I did notice something on this site; http://www.wkfinetools.com/tRestore/miscTools/MarkGauge/markGauge1.asp

Has pictures too.

prozac

He has more faith and patience than me.


Denn