Stanley Chisel Restoration

This instructable shows the steps taken to restore my dads old Stanley chisels. The chisels had the plastic type handles that had become very rough and brittle from sun damage we think. The original plan was to remove the blade and turn new handles, but then I discovered the damage was only less that a 1mm deep. The cutting edges have had a hard life so they needed work too.

The purpose was to return these chisel to a serviceable condition, not back to original condition.

Step 1: Handles

The handles were cleaned up by first scrapping the loose/crumbly surface layer off with a utility knife. Once this was off, they were then sanded with wet and dry paper and buffed.

Step 2: Blades

The surface rust was removed with a wire wheel in the drill press. I had no desire to remove all the patina just the surface rust.

The cutting edges were quite bad with several with dents in and none of them straight.

To get back to a good dent free start the chisels were cleaned up on the white wheel on the bench grinder.

Once a good base edge was achieved I worked through the grits on a combination diamond sharpener. Using soapy water to lubricate and clean the swarf away.

The finished blades where then given a coat of paste wax to slow any rushing down.

I then made my dad a rack to store them in to hopefully keep them in better condition. (You can see that build here: https://www.instructables.com/id/Chisel-Rack/)