Thread: Cleaning Help Chisels

I would use a fibre wheel on a bench grinder for the flat chisels. The concave side of the gouges may not be easy to do this way and if that is the case wrap W & D around a suitable size piece of dowel. Just go lightly with the wheel on the back towards the cutting edge on all the chisels as you don't want to compromise the flatness. In fact, as you will probably have to "flatten" the back of the chisel anyway, don't treat the last 25mm at all. It will polish up in the flattening stage.

Regards
Paul

Haven’t done it myself but you could stand them up in molasses for a couple of days and then clean them up from there

Hi Brenton. I have had good success with citric acid for removing rust but your steel looks pretty good. I would spend more time restoring the handles. Great score by the way.

Soaking in vinegar also removes rust and after rinsing dries to a blue/grey finish

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Hi Brenton. I have had good success with citric acid for removing rust but your steel looks pretty good. I would spend more time restoring the handles. Great score by the way.

I agree,I'd leave the patina on the blades and put some oil on the handles, sharpen and use.

To smarten up blades or just about any metal objects I use a "fine" or very fine multifold Scotchbrite wheel.
A light application won't remove any metal and leaves a pleasing mat finish.

The one show below is a "medium wheel I use for metal work projects but I also have a fine and very fine wheels.
The multifold pattern flows them to be used on curved surfaces like concave side of gouges.
This one is actually two 4 fold wheels joined together to make an 8 fold.
They usually come with with thick leather hubs with 4 nails connecting the two hubs so I just removed the nails combined teh two wheels and replaced the nails with M4 bolts.
IMG_3389.jpg
The wheel on teh left below is a 6 fold fine wheel I bought recently to replace the wheel worn on right.
We used this wheel to do up a bunch of my mates dad's old chisels and gouges. He was so pleased with how this worked out he brought around a bunch of other tools as well.
ScothcBriteWheel.jpg

Great pickup. I'm restoring a similar set of chisels. I've left most of the patina and toolmakers emblem intact. Since I don't have a bench grinder available I'm doing each by hand and sanding to 240grit sometimes higher and cleaning up the brass and re oiling the handles.

Biggest/longest challenge is setting a sharp face on them without a grinder. I've got a coarse diamond stone that seems to get me most of the way there and then iterating through sandpaper grits to hone the backs and bevel again.

Lots of work but it's therapeutic to me with some music and I'm going to value the restored finish especially since I can't afford the crazy pmv11 Veritas or equivalent chisels anyway.

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Bob's Scotchbrite wheel looks very interesting: A bit like the fibre wheel I mentioned.



P1060883 (Medium).JPG

As an experiment I grabbed three ratty looking chisels that were all different. Sorry about the lighting. It was dark and the full moon wasn't as much help as I had hoped

P1060882 (Medium).JPG

As part of the exercise I timed each of them at less than two minutes on the wheel, which included the ferrules as well as the blades..

P1060914 (Medium).JPGP1060915 (Medium).JPG

Regards
Paul

Nice results! I think I need a bench grinder

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Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Bob's Scotchbrite wheel looks very interesting: A bit like the fibre wheel I mentioned. l

Yep they are very similar.
Scotchbrite also comes as a solid wheel, I had one about 15 years ago and wore it out.

Then I had a couple of Scotchbrite flap wheels like these

Screen Shot 2020-12-29 at 5.57.36 am.jpg

I started using the multifold wheels about 5 years ago and I go through about 1 a year. Especially since SWMBO has started using them for her craft work, ie larger jewellery pieces.

Delbs, you won't regret getting a bench grinder - there's so many things they can be used for.

Without wanting to hi jack this thread,
Maybe some links to scotch brite wheels.
Would ,could help those viewing.

Cheers Matt.

Hi Matt. I was following up on a recommendation from Paul a little while ago, and found something similar (ish) at Bunnings. Made by 3M, purple in colour but much more open (as in full of holes) than the ones Bob has posted. I didn't buy them though.

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Without wanting to hi jack this thread,
Maybe some links to scotch brite wheels.
Would ,could help those viewing.

Cheers Matt.

Search for Scotchbrite on ebay and you will see a few different types.
There are mops, flap wheels, sheets, discs, and even belts. I have a 1200mm belt that I use on a modified multitool linisher in an unsupported mode and it does a really nice job on rounded/curved objects

I got my mops/wheels from ABtools Australia
Metal Polishing - Page 1 - AB Tools Online
I purchased from their ebay store which I think is based in the UK but the goods came from the east coast OZ

They are sold as polishing mops because that is primarily what they do, although they will do an excellent job at stripping rust/paint with minimal metal removal. Safer, better and more gently than a stiff wire wheel.
The coarser the wheel the more effective they are at removal but of course leave a rougher finish.
I like them because you can hand hold small objects close to the wheel and even the coarse wheel won't bite fingers anywhere near as bad as a wire wheel would, plus there are no needle like wires thrown off like when using a wire wheel. SWMBO is very happy using them on her craft pieces.

The fine and very fine mops leave a beaut patina brushed patina especially on brass and aluminium.
For tools with only light marks or rust I would recommend a fine grade.

The Scotchbrite wheel mops are in 2, 4 or 6 layers/rows and usually in 6 and 8" diameters.
2 row x 6" is OK for small stuff but for tools I suggest at least 4.
As I said above, I made an 8 row by combining 2, 4 layer mops, I use this combo for larger things.
I note that ABtools currently only have coarse grades. $23 plus shipping.

Sorry to rabbit on here, but if you want a jewellery grade patina/finish on soft metals then these are the ducks nuts.
It's a super soft wire wheel.
The wheel is 6" in diameter and uses 2" long,0.076mm thick, steel wires that being so thin are surprising soft and when not spinning they feel almost silk like.
With only a wooden hub the wheel should probably not be spun too fast (ie not 3000 rpm like a bench grinder) - I use mine at 2000 rpm on the lathe and at that speed I find I can still hold screws, bolts etc up against the wheel at tolerate the spinning wires on my fingers for about 10s. I sometimes run it at about 1200 rpm for small screws etc
I bought mine from the US but Caswells here in Oz sell the same thingl although they don't keep them in stock and have to order them from the US and they say allow 3 weeks from when they get your order.
Even though it cost a few $ more in buying direct from the US I didn't buy from Caswell's because you can only buy something if you register ie cannot buy as a guest and I dislike it when businesses do that.
Mine also arrived from Florida US in ~2.5 weeks anyway.

I use it primarily in my metal blueing process as a "Carding brush" to the remove loose black iron oxide from the workpieces - it does this quickly but does not remove the hard black oxide from the work surfaces.
After some use the wires get a little tangled and need to be "combed" out to recover their softness.

Cardingwheel.jpg

The most annoying thing about using scotchbrite and soft wire wheels is hanging onto small workpieces and not having them thrown across the shed never to be seen again.
If the workpiece piece is small and irreplaceable then you need to come up with a secure holding strategy that prevents this happening.
For nuts I thread them onto a bolt and make sure to apply the nut to the wheel while holding the bolt in the left hand otherwise the nut will spin off the thread - and go flying across the shed.


.

This is what a fine scotchbrite wheel can do to a piece of regular galv water pipe.

These were only 30s of quick and dirty applications and could be significantly improved on with more careful/longer apps
GalvPipep.jpg

With metal polishing there is considerable benefit obtained by not using the same direction of application.
A bit like using jack plane, start with the easiest direction the apply the wheel at 45º to that, and then at 90º to that - repeat till satisfied.
You may want the "brush" marks to appear in a certain direction so just finish on that part of teh cycle.

Scotch Brite pads look super useful. Yup @BobL I just picked up a 2nd hand Abbott and Ashby 8" grinder with a few different buffing wheels. Looking forward to it helping me finish off with some plane cleanup I have left to do

Does anyone use a CBN wheel on a bench grinder that has the higher rpm? Or it's not really suitable?

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