My Dad’s Old Yellow Screwdriver

I discovered this ratty old screwdriver in a box of my Dad’s old tools.

It seemed appropriate to restore it to its former glory.

Over the years he used it, this was probably not used so much as a screwdriver, but more as a general purpose – poke – lever – tweak – stir – device!

I cleaned off all the layers of paint and rust and grime, filed the pointy end back nice and square so that it worked as a screwdriver again, sanded it with fine paper, and applied WD40.

A simple little project, but a nice memory to have of my Dad, who taught me how to work with tools when I was very young.

Experiments with Rust

This weekend, I discovered the joys of electric rust removal.

I used a glass baking dish, a battery charger, some plain tap water, washing soda, and an old bit of steel.

The results were really quite amazing.

The rust just disappeared in a flurry of bubbles.

A little bit of brushing and light sanding brought it up all nice and shiny.

A lot easier than rust converter.

$3.85 for 1kg of soda. I probably used 1/50th of it, roughly 7cents.

Restoring a Cold Chisel

This weekend I revived my father’s cold chisel. Not a spectacular device, but amazingly useful.

A cold chisel is traditionally used by blacksmiths to cut into cold steel – mainly for cutting thick steel sheet.
(A “hot chisel” is used to cut iron and steel while still in the forge or soon after)

My father had used this for various projects over the years – he probably bought it some time in the 50’s or 60’s – and I recently came into possession of it. Banged up well and truly – mushroomed on the top, and dented at the cutting tip.

I used an angle grinder to remove the mushroomed top, and the bench grinder to shape the hardened tip.

Blue “hammered finish” paint was the best finish for this project as it hides the dents and scratches really well, as well as being a very traditional finish for tools like this.

7 Attempts to De-Rust

Restoring Vintage Sheep Shears

This weekend I learned some important lessons…

(1) If something is really deeply rusted, think twice about starting a restoration.

(2) If you decide to start, then start aggressively – use power tools – don’t dither about with rust converter.

(3) Once you’re back to bare metal, it’s rather enjoyable.

(4) If the rusty old thing belonged to your Dad, then it’s worth spending 3 weekend sessions on it.

I ended up using a wire brush, a scraper, rust converter, a wire wheel, a disk sander, an orbital sander, hand sanding, polisher wheel, buffing compound, and WD40.

I will probably never shear a sheep.

In fact I’m sure my father never sheared a sheep either.

There’s a possibility that he got them from his father… who coincidentally probably never sheared a sheep.

Ain’t the world an odd place?

New Power Sander

For my vintage shears restoration, I needed some sort of power sander with coarse grit papers.

I went to the hardware store and had 10 sandpaper disks in my hand (only $2 each – I was planning to use my sanding disk in the drill)

To my delight, I found this little beauty that comes with 20 sheets ranging from 60 to 120 grit.

Perfect. $34.

Quick math meant that for $14 extra, I got the power sander.

Vintage Soldering Iron

This weekend, I gave new life to an old soldering iron.

It belonged to my grandfather, then to my father – I remember him firing up the kerosene blowtorch when I was a kid.

It’s a remarkably simple tool. Basically a lump of copper on an iron stick with a wooden handle so you don’t burn your fingers.

I was surprised how difficult it was to file the copper. The steel shaft could have been made shinier, but at some point I realised it would look better with a few little dings and pitting, than trying to make it look new.

I was originally going to finish the handle with polyurethane or epoxy. Nope, I thought that beeswax was a better finish for the vintage.

blowtorch

Now I’m on the lookout for an old blowtorch like this !