Restoring Planes with Citric Acid

[thekulman]

Hi - I did a quick search on the forum for "citric" and didn't get any results, so I'll pose this question.

I have 3 Hand Planes (metal), 2 are Bailey's (1910-1912) and the other was my grandfathers from the farm - don't know how old it is, and the name on the lever cap says "Este". All are rusted and I'm trying to refinish them.

After disassembling the plane I soaked the first in 1/2 cup (125 ml) of citric acid powder added to 2 gallons (8 l) of hot tap water. It worked well at removing the rust. I then dried the parts and sprayed with WD-40 to inhibit more rust.

Here's my problem - citric is supposed to be safe on paint and plating, but when I rubbed the parts with either my finger in a rubber glove, or a green sided scouring pad or a brush (to remove the rust residue), the plating on the lever cap and lateral adjustment lever came off, as did some of the black paint (jappaning?) on the top of the plane!

Does anyone have experience with this problem? Is there a better way? And can I replace the jappaning and plating any way (at home)?

Kul

[Bodgy]

Never had a problem like that, even after restoring 10+ planes. I would guess that the rust had already undermined the paint and thats why it came off.

Try searching again re Japanning, there's lots of info here. Personally I never bother with paint on the sole, I just go back to the bare cast. I did once re paint a Record #6, the Auto Shops have very durable black spray on paint.

The plating on the lever cap is a problem, I found this on all my planes. If its really bad, I just go back to the raw alloy, if only a few bits missing, the chrome sprays work ok, if you assiduously sand down the damaged areas and surrounds.

Finally, if the plane is very rusted, I'd go the electrolysis route. Again, a search should find a wealth of info.

[jmk89]

Kul

I have had a similar experience, but I think that in that case what happened was that there was rust beneath the paint, so the citric acid lifted the paint as it dissolved the rust to which the paint was adhering.

On black japanning - here is a thread that details my early experiences. Since refining my processes as advised in that thread, my results have been good and the new japanning has lasted really well.

Cheers

Jeremy