Home made Japaning

Stanley 10 1/2 Refurbishment

here is how it looked when I picked it up at a carboot sale(yard sale) for £5 ($10)

Cleaning The Plane

First step to assemble the kit needed to use electrolysis to strip the rust off

Pics of the kit

Really expensive kit One gallon plastic container with the top cut off, two bits of iron to act as negative anodes, two old spring clamps to hold the anodes, and a 12v battery charger, and most important two or three spoonfuls of washing soda.

Next step fill the container with water turn on the power and add the soda a little at a time until approximately a 5-6 amp current is obtained.

Container filled with water the current is turned on and washing soda added

15 minutes later it’s cooking quite nicely the scum on the top is rust.

Here is a closer pic of the lever cap before restoration started

The lever cap had about an hour undergoing the electolysis treatment then I buffed it up using a polishing mop on my grinding machine. This next pic is how it looks now.

At the moment the frog and chip beaker are in tub cooking

Tuesday 30th July

The chip breaker had the same elecrolysis treatment but it needed a lot of rubbing down, there is some pitting as I expected but I can live with that

The blade although needing a lot a rubbing down came out much better than the chip breaker

Some clean up shows there is some pitting but nothing that bad

After flattening the sole and sides of the body a little just to get it clean paint stripper was applied
to remove the japaning

Washed the stripper off just needs some more cleaning and maybe a little flattening.

Sanded down and ready for finish

Tote and knob off Stanley 10 1/2 after six coats of french polish every one cut back with 0000 wire wool I was going to leave the final coat gloss but it looked to plastic so I cut that back as well then applied a coat of Black Bison paste wax to finish.

It’s hard to think it’s over 100 years old

Stanley 10 1/2 frog gets it’s first coat of japaning before it gets it’s second coat it will be cooked in the Aga for an hour or two

Bits and pieces polished up and finished

Today it looks like this…..

Here’s a few more pics

A little pitting still on the sole but I think I can live with that.

Here are my Stanley No 5, 6 & 7 all Japaned in the Aga

Number 5 was a learning curve and really could do to be done again.
Number 6 was pretty good for the second attempt, even though I say it myself.
Number 7 perfection Better job than Stanley ever did.

How did I do it? Well I started Here I found it a pretty good guide of how to do it.

A recipe…

asphaltum, 2 lbs.
boiled linseed oil, 1/2 pint
spirits of turpentine, 1 gallon;

Mix the ashhaltum & boiled linseed oil first in an iron pot, boil slowly until the asphaltum is melted, then take it some distance from the fire, cool a little, and add the turpentine (avoiding ignition) before it cools too much, and it is finished. It might look quite brown at first but it will darken with age and when more coats that are applied.

Asphalum Suppliers

witchcraftshop

Lawrence .co.uk

Hawthornprintmaker

Early history of Japaning
Click Here

More interesting reading & recipes HERE