OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

80908 Allan Fisher alf@c... 2000‑07‑13 Re: Cleaning and refinishing wooden planes
At 09:46 PM 7/12/00 -0400, Jim Cook wrote:
>Tung oil, it's been mentioned, is inconsistent.  I've tried
>to use "tung oil finish" and maybe that's the problem for
>me.  Possibly because some planes are drier than others, the
>tung oil soaks into the wood and becomes blotchy, or if the
>wood is not dried out, the finish polymerizes and looks
>too much like polyurethane.

Much of what is sold as "tung oil finish" is varnish or an oil-varnish 
mix.  Real tung oil is usually sold as "pure tung oil."

As long as we're debating, I prefer not to do anything permanent (oil or 
varnish) to a tool that's in good shape and hasn't been oiled before.  I 
have a few virtually untouched beech planes, and the idea that they would 
have survived more than a hundred years that way only to have me come along 
and oil them is sort of disturbing.

One of the more annoying experiences I've had with a tool was a nice 
Pittsburgh molding plane (W. Even) that somebody had soaked in linseed (I 
think), then reassembled and allowed to dry into a single unit.  Nothing I 
tried could coax it apart.  I ended up letting it cycle through a couple of 
seasonal changes, after which it loosened up enough to be tapped apart.




Recent Bios FAQ