Gentle Galoots,

 I want to thank you all for many good and valuable comments on the subject.
Guess I switch from my one step method of cleaning/oiling/waxing to a more
cautious process of 
- gentle cleaning
- looking at the result and
- applying some paste wax if needed

 This leads to another question. Most people seem to clean their planes with
mineral spirits. Because of the smell and the possible health hazards I
wanted to avoid this and tried cleaning a plane with just some soapy water,
with good results. Would this be also an accepted method or should I stay
away with water from a woodie?

 In order to preserve your valuable comments for posterity or maybe a fellow
galoot with the same problem I compiled your messages into a webpage:
http://www.holzwerken.de/plancln.phtml. I hope this is complete as I was
temporarily switched off digest mode and had to get the missing messages
from egroups.

Wolfgang
-- 
'Woodworking with hand tools (in German)': http://www.holzwerken.de

Just a note before I'm off  for a few days,

Be extremely careful with soapy water. Extremely careful! Every time you wet the
grain of the wood you cause a slight swelling which leads to a reduction in edge
definition.  Your maker's stamps won't be as sharp and the clean lines of the
plane will become less so.

Nowdays more woodies are destroyed by cleaning and 'restoring' than by any other
single factor.

Randy Roeder         Repaint houses, not old tools


"Jordan Wolfgang Dr." wrote:

> Gentle Galoots,
>
>  I want to thank you all for many good and valuable comments on the subject.
> Guess I switch from my one step method of cleaning/oiling/waxing to a more
> cautious process of
> - gentle cleaning
> - looking at the result and
> - applying some paste wax if needed
>
>  This leads to another question. Most people seem to clean their planes with
> mineral spirits. Because of the smell and the possible health hazards I
> wanted to avoid this and tried cleaning a plane with just some soapy water,
> with good results. Would this be also an accepted method or should I stay
> away with water from a woodie?
>
>  In order to preserve your valuable comments for posterity or maybe a fellow
> galoot with the same problem I compiled your messages into a webpage:
> http://www.holzwerken.de/plancln.phtml. I hope this is complete as I was
> temporarily switched off digest mode and had to get the missing messages
> from egroups.
>
> Wolfgang
> --
> 'Woodworking with hand tools (in German)': http://www.holzwerken.de
>
> --
> +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
> Private replies: Wolfgang.Jordan@m...
> Public replies:  OLDTOOLS@l...
> To signoff or digest: listserv@l...
> Archive: http://mailmunch.law.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/archives/OLDTOOLS
>                      Quote sparingly.
> +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

On 26 Jul 2000, at 7:23, Roeder/Kraft wrote:

> Be extremely careful with soapy water. Extremely careful! 

What he said.

Except, it should be noted, that some soils are easier to clean with 
petroleum products, and some are easier to clean with soap and water.  
So a little of both is good on most tools.

But for woodies, like I said, what he said.  Extremely careful.

Paul Radovanic

----- Original Message -----
From: Jordan Wolfgang Dr. Wolfgang.Jordan@m...
>
>  This leads to another question. Most people seem to clean their
planes with
> mineral spirits. Because of the smell and the possible health
hazards I
> wanted to avoid this and tried cleaning a plane with just some soapy
water,
> with good results. Would this be also an accepted method or should I
stay
> away with water from a woodie?
>

I really don't like the idea of water near "woodies".
99 times out of 100 an old woodie will be dry as a bone.
Water and old dry wood don't go together without something
changing. And the whole purpose is to cause minimal change.

My approach is to get dust and grime away with kerosene and
a toothbrush or 0000 steel wool, then go straight to the
paste wax.  No water anywhere.

That way nothing is gonna change shape on me.  As for
using oil, I use the occasional raw linseed inside the wedge
cavity after closing off the mouth with gaffer tape.  Leave
it there until it soaks inside the plane body, then wipe up
and use kero/paste wax.

Don't like the idea of putting oil on the outside. Rather
have it inside the plane body where it will close any old
age cracks.  Outside, all it does is unnecessarily darken
the wood.

If I ever had to use oil on the outside, I'd go for Orange
oil or similar: dries clear and doesn't turn everything dark.

Cheers
Nuno Souto
nsouto@n...
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/the_Den