Addressing issues with wooden planes

Part of my continuing (As if there is ever an end?? :-) inventory check is to physically account them all to re conciliate both virtual and physical world.  Since I have them all out, time to give them a once over before putting them back in storage.

Just like metallic planes, wooden planes can suffer from all kinds of ailments in storage.
The metallic parts can rust and freeze, the wooden parts can crack, rot, be infested with bugs, finishes deteriorate and etc.

 YES, even in storage.  In my basement hand tool shop, I run a de-humidifier, located near the end of the shop by the door to the laundry room, near my plane and saw tills.
I can monitor both temperature and humidity in my shop (when said sensor is not in uses in her plant room or green house :-).  The only window in the shop has been replaced by a new Argon filled, low E window.  There is a hot water radiator inside the shop, by the window, under my tills.

The tools that are in the tills do get used (some) and are cleaned before being put back in storage.

Despite all these precautions, I do find issues with my tools at times and some need to be addressed right away to stop further damages.

And then there are the newly introduced tools to the herd.  These have to be given a good once over to assess damages and what need to be done.

Soooo...  All that to say, partly in response to a question left by Steve: What is my remedy for mildewed woodies?

Here is the one in question.  I thought previously I had two infected, but the other turned out to be paint splatters.

Looks like mold starting to me.

So I treated it accordingly

How come only one? I have 109 woodies in my shop.
The answer is revealed by the white sticker left on the plane, it indicate a recent purchase that had not been inducted yet.  It must had been contaminated before showing up at my shop door.

No biggie if caught in time, before serious damages occurs.

I will use just about anything that says mildew killer on it.

This is what I just happened to have today.

These and Murphy oil are the products I use to clean and protect

And YES, it says do not used on wood or painted surface!

We are just wiping, not a problem.

Never had an issue. 

The other stuff used in this operation.

Screwdriver, plane hammer, dental pick, razor blade, masking tape, 

cotton cloth , paper towel, gloves and mask

If I think I am dealing with some sort of mould infection, I will don gloves and mask, spray the cleaner on a cloth and wipe the affected area.

Like I said earlier upon close inspections only one was found affected.  I cleaned it and put it aside in quarantine.  As an added precaution, I wiped clean the ones that were near it in the till.
Once dried, they all get a coat of Howard Feed N Wax, while their irons are soaking in Evaporust.

The plane in question, upon our return, 3 days later

While soaking I would pull the irons out and give them a good scrubbing with a steel brush.  It does two things:
1- It let me judge the progress of Evaporust, and
2- It give the still rusted area a fresh exposure to the magic elixir :-)

My GO-NOGO test is: Do I still see brownish areas under the light?
Sometimes they look good under the normal light but stand out like a sore thumb under the flash exposure.
These two batches of irons, back from the wire wheel.

This batch of irons is good to go

This batch is NOGO

The smallest Hollow iron on the left has small nodules of rust on the inside bevel.

The others still have too much rust brown areas.

Especially if that is inside pitting areas, it is critical to stop all rust activities.

I then finish with rust eraser for touching up spots missed by the wire wheel, then wiped with either WD40 or Autosol.  Whichever I have on hand nearby at the time.

While the irons are soaking... Lets back up a minute.  It can quickly become overwhelmingly confusing which irons and wedges belongs to which planes.  Therefore, must resist the urge to soak them all at once.  I try to soak a match of various sizes, no repeats, different enough to prevent mixing ups.  The wedge stay in the body without the blade.

That meant more repeat soakings, but a lot less confusing.

While the wedge is out, I look for fit and damages.  Often broken tip (will cause jams),  but it does happens to have a miss matched wedge.  Either I missed it at purchase time, or I got them mixed up somehow.

That is partly why, each tool is photographed as received at the beginning of my schedule maintenance.  That is the tool is cleaned (to better see damages, often hidden by grime), wood preserved by a buffed coat of Feed N Wax.  Damages attended to or cataloged for further actions (need parts)

As the tool is cleaned and de-rusted I take pics and similarly if repainted, will document also.
All these pics helps a lot if I spot a missing or damaged parts later on.  Did it show up before?
And, yes, it also is of great helps to re-match wedges and planes.
Mismatch happens in pairs, hence if you find one, look for the other.
Unless of course it just happens to be the new one and only one you just brought in.
Then the mismatched wedge is still with the vendor or long gone MIA.  I brought one back from Scotland 30 years ago like that, did not knew any better, and the iron was also mismatch :-(
The things I learned along the way :-)

Wedge, being wood and sometimes rather fragile looking, they do not take much abuse from metal hammer like object.  Wood to Wood, Metal to Metal, is a mantra often repeated.  It simply means use a wooden face hammer to hit the wood parts, and the other face metal to hit the iron.

My LV plane hammer

Brass body for heft and do not damages the iron.

Wood face, has a replaceable wood turned plug to hit the wood body or wedge

If you are thinking, that look like a dainty little knocker?  You would be right and it should also give you and indication of the tiny amount of force require to adjust a woodie.
Obviously, that hammer has never enough oomph to dislodge a frozen blade assy. from its body.  That would require a more serious persuader:  A 16 Oz carpenter mallet for example.
Sometimes, especially with bench planes, they need a serious wack to shock them.  In these cases, bigger is better as a persuader, but NO METAL please.

Here is typical damages done to the wedge by using the wrong tool and technique to adjust the plane.

This poor wedge will break a chunk of wood soon if this abuse continue

Some work with a file and sandpaper.

Trying to keep original "overall shape"

The shape is often an indication of regional provenance.

Stained with my Cherry Howard refinisher follow by a wipe of Feed N wax.

NOTE that I DO NOT wipe wax all over the wedge.  That could impair its wedging action. 

 Instead I carefully only wax the top finial, using the colour difference as to where to start / finish 

Once all cleaned, waxed, de-rusted iron are re-united with its body, they will go back in my till.  The next time one of them comes out to play, it will be sharpened then.  Not now.  109 planes to sharpen would be a tad time consuming.  Each time they come out to play, they get a once over, touch up as required, sharpen etc.  Before they go back in storage they get wiped, brushed, cleaned.
Once in awhile they all come out for inventory and get another go of servicing inspections.

In other words, their care and feed is a continuous process.   My NO 1 Prime directive when "Cleaning" my tool, is Do NO harm.  Stop damages, if new part required, little effort is made to blend repair.  It shows up as an honest working user tool.  My favorite to collect :-)

While I was in between hand drills and woodies, I did a bunch of block planes.

Some had some paint touch ups.

Only when too much bare metal was exposed.

The last two on the right, top picture.

Stanley No 19 Excelsior body before paint

Sargent No 107 Gull wing before paint

Ok, so now if you'll excuse me, we got back from a little side trip to see a friend in our Atlantic bubble; New-Brunswick.  I still have a few irons soaking and a box of goodies I brought back, that I am anxious to go thru :-)

Bob, drinking a cold one.
Note to myself, next time I'm in the city, bring back a jug of Evaporust