I posted this on Breaktime, and one of the first people to respond said I’d find some answers here, so here goes:
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| I just received a family heirloom, my mother’s tool chest from the 1930’s. Yes, my mother’s. She was the first woman to graduate from the Institute of Technology at the University of New Hampshire, with a degree in architecture. Her father was a building contractor and gave her this chest, fitted out with tools, as her graduation gift. (This background may explain why I subscribe to Fine Homebuilding, though I’ve never built a thing in my life. It’s in my genes to find construction interesting.) OK, the reason I’m writing is I want ideas on the best way to care for this new acquisition. The chest itself is wooden, 37″ x 19″ x 18″ high, with three lift-out trays that slide on cleats inside the box and a lift-out tote box with fitted places for a couple of handsaws. The interior is unfinished and fairly clean, though dusty. It smells musty, having spent the last 60+ years in a variety of cellars. The outside still shows signs of the original green paint. The tools were dispersed over the years (Dad built a cabinet with pegboard and kept them there, which really annoyed Mom), but when my sister packed the tool chest to ship to me, she included all the “old” hand tools she could find. It’s quite a miscellany. I plan to keep the chest and tools in the house. I’d like to do something to the chest to smarten it up and preserve it. I wouldn’t dream of repainting it, but someone at an antique shop suggested tung oil. Over time (winter evenings?) I’d like to clean up the various tools. Any suggestions about what I should (or should not) do with this treasure? EllenVic |
Replies
Hi EllenVic. Welcome to the Forum. It's great to be able to have 'family tools'. Some of us would LOVE to have the tools our grand-parents and great-grandparents used. Let's start with the tools. If you are not going to use them but you want to preserve them the proceedure is fairly simple. First just clean off the surface dirt. Use a shop-vac to BLOW away the dust and dirt. ) Do this outside as the dust may be quite thick. For bare metal surfaces - use 0000 steel wool and some good paste wax on all BARE metal surfaces. This will not remove the patina, but will remove any light rusting. Use a soft rag to LIGHTLY wax all the painted metal parts. This will bring up a nice sheen. Do not over-wax. Just like furniture, all you want is a thin moisture barrier. Anything wooden should also get a thin coat of wax. If you have wood body planes, a little 409 or Fantastic on a rag will clean up the outer surfaces. DO NOT drown the wood in cleaner. Again, a coat of paste wax is all that is needed unless the tool is really grungy. Note... for wooden planes... DO NOT mix up plane bodies, blades and wedges. The wedge and blade are fitted to THAT particular body. Now for the tool chest. Again, blow out all the accumulated dirt and dust. Let it sit in the sunshine to air out and dry out. You may never be able to remove 100% of the musty, damp odor, but you can bring it down to almost un-noticable. Some people may tell you to wipe the inside with a solution of vinegar and water to remove the odor. DO NOT drown the wood. Just a damp rag with the vinegar solution is all that is needed. When everything is dry, start placing the tools back into the chest. That should keep you busy for many evenings. For the wax, I like to use either 'Butchers Wax' or Johnsons Paste Wax. Nothing fancy, as you are not a museum looking to preserve each item for the next 500 years. For the outside of the chest, there are more choices and options than I could ever go into. I'll let someone else cover that area as it is not in my field of experteese.
SawdustSteve Long Island, NY (E of NYC)
EllenVic,
I can't really add to much on the tool "preservation"; Steve covered that one pretty well.
As to the tool chest I'd recommend cleaning it up with nothing more than Murphy's Oil Soap after blowing it out and/or vacumming, great stuff especially for just such a "project". As Steve suggested, don't drown the wood and let it air dry out of any direct sunlight. The Murphy's should also remove any "mustiness". I've used this approach on antique steamer trunks, chests, and etc. and it works very well, even where there is mold. Often times, I would put a couple of scrap pieces of Southern Red Cedar in the piece after cleaning and drying, within a few days any mustiness would be gone....FWIW.
Dano
My thanks to Dano and Steve, and anyone else who gets into this. I've posted a set of 41 photos to ofoto, including a series of all the tools laid out in groups as they look now. If you'd like the link to ofoto, send an email to [email protected] and I'll get back to you.
Ellen
Edited 9/29/2002 2:40:19 PM ET by ELLENVIC
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