Refurbishing Old Tools

I bought an old Stanley #80 cabinet scraper off E-Bay a few weeks back. These tools are really great for fine-tuning and preparing surfaces for finish. The one I bought wasn't in great shape, but it was cheap ($20) and with a little work can be back in fine working order. Here's a photo of the one I bought.

The photo isn't a really great one, but you can see the surface rust and lack of japanning (paint). Most of the rust was on the underside (out of view in photo). It will work as-is, provided it has a good burr on the blade, but thought it would be fun to try to bring it back as far as I can. This link shows one in mint condition (go to the middle of the page). I'm not planning to go crazy with the restoration, but it should look good when done.

Step 1 is rust removal. I've been reading about electrolysis for some time and finally had a project to try it out on. After picking up a few supplies at the hardware & grocery stores, it only took me ~30 minutes to get my rig up & running. Here's what it looked like.

The bucket had dissolved washing soda in it and the leads from the battery charger were hooked up like the instructions said. It only took ~30 seconds to see bubbles rising from the electrodes. Very cool indeed. The first photo below is what it looked like after 30 minutes. BTW, the scraper is hanging from a wire in the center of the bucket (attached to the negative (black) lead).

And overnight...
And here's the intermediate results after some brief cleanup with a wire brush on a dremel tool. All of the deep pitted rust is gone and the cast iron has a bit of a sheen again. It could use a bit more work before I attempt to apply paint, but it should be finished in no time. I'm looking forward to the Stormville Flea Market again on Memorial Day weekend. I'm no longer afraid of buying ugly, abused, rust covered tools.