rusty tools

[Aaron Kline]

I have a big problem with tools rusting, one in particular is my block plane. I cleaned it up with varying grits of sandpaper and put a 3 in 1 oil on it and let it sit. The next day without even being touched it has a very deep dark rust on it. Could it be from the humidity? Every tool I touch seems to get rusty, even the vise handle and the nuts on handsaws(nickel, not brass). Any help would be appreciated. When I recondition them I wear gloves so my hands don't touch and it still rusts like crazy. Thanks

[Doug Jones]

If I had to guess, I'd go with the humidity being high. Is a dehumidifier possible?
Only a suggestion.

[Pam Niedermayer]

First, it is possible that you are one of those whose chemistry causes tools to rust wherever you touch them.

Second, it's more likely that it's caused by humidity. Todd Hughes, who lives on the eastern shore (Price, MD), long ago noted on Badger Pond that tools he kept in wooden boxes and/or cabinets did not rust. I tried it in Austin, TX, at times a humid place, and confirmed his experience. So at least try leaving your chisel in a wood box of some sort.

Pam

[Carl Eyman]

Can you give us an idea of your shop location? Basement? When I lived in Wisconsin my basement shop used to give me fits. In the summer the temperature there might be in the mid 70's while the dew point of the air on a humid summer day could be in the 80's. Everything had condensation on it all the time. Now my shop in Louisiana is in an unheated building but there are not the radical diffferences in the temperaature of the tools and that of the air; so I have no problem.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Rust is an insidious aggravation. High humidity always makes matters worse, but that is unlikely to be the only problem. First off I'd remove all of the oil from the tool or tools with a degreaser. The next step would be to use one of the abrasive steel wool substitutes with mineral spirits and go over all of the cast iron and steel surfaces to remove the mostly invisible areas of rust along with those you can see. Yes, lots of times small particles of rust are virtually invisible and in the pores of the metal. This is usually worse on the cast iron which is more porous than the steel. The next step would be to use one of the rust preventatives like Boeshield and follow the instructions on the can. After that I would use either paste wax or TopCote for a low friction top layer and buff it up. This should be renewed as needed. Remember that both sweaty hands and the natural oils and salts from your hands are corrosive and will quickly reintroduce the rust when your protective coatings wear thin.

In addition to the above measures for derusting, you also need look at how you store your tools. There are several things which can provide an environment conducive to rusting.

1) large variations in temperatures such as night to day changes in a humid environment which cause evening condensation of moisture on your tools.

2) storage of tools in a closed metal storage cabinet- see #1 above

3) Heavy use of a tool which removes protective coating and putting it away with rust prevention measures. Relax, we all do it occasionally.

4) Here's the oddball one we all forget about. Leaving a tool on top of a piece of unfinished wood. The tannic acids in the wood and the moisture in the wood can both start a new layer of rust.

I'm sure there are others I forgot, but I'm at work and have trouoble concentrating on this thread.

[Mark Kelly]

Hmm, I never thought of number 4. Here in New Mexico we rarely have humidity levels above 25% and rust usually isn't a problem. However, most of my cast iron planes are sitting on small shelves of unfinished pine. I have to admit, though, that I do have them propped up on shims (two on either end of the sole) above this unfinished pine. I think I'll be putting some shellac on those pine shelves within the next few days!!

[Alan Turner]

Hmmm. My planes, used often, rest on their sides on a shelf (unfinished) of maple, wihtout incident. That in a Philadelphia area basement. I have not noted problems, other than the ususal, and no diff. from one side to the other. Guess Maple is not too corosive.
Alan

[Richard Gillespie]

I experienced a problem with my cast iron planes rusting despite having a heavy layer of Johnson Paste wax on them. It took my a while to figure out what the problem was. The planes were users only and the one that was doing most of the rusting had some pitting on the sole. That combined with setting them on plywood shelves was causing it. I remembered that plywood exhales acidic moisture when it is out gassing.

Once I built solid wood shelves with three coats of varnish on them for my planes I have vastly reduced my rusting problem. My shop is an attached two car garage in Northern Virginia.

[Greg Heppeard]

I'm glad I read this thread...I plan on building a display for the store for the LN planes we have in stock...now I know not to use the cherry ply that I had intended...I'm going solid cherry. Thanks guys.

[Aaron Kline]

Thanks for all the responses. I never guessed putting iron on unfinished wood is helping the rust along. Ill finish my workbench up tonight and see if the problem goes away. My "shop" is in the garage with no temp. control so it can be 50 at night and 90 in the day. I can't really control that variable until the shop has it's own space in a shed. Maybe I'll build an enclosed wooden toolbox for the planes and chisels.

[Jack Young]

There must be some truth in the wooden box approach.

Last summer I visited a cousin, in Boston, whose husband had tons of stuff stored in a large floorless shed with no heat or a/c. Most of the stuff, including a dinosaur Gravely tractor, appeared rusted to distraction. Though he was obsessed with the Gravely tractor (I learned more than I ever wanted to know about it) he eventually opened a wooden box sitting on the ground and began pulling out planes, saws, augers, lay-out tools and whatall which his grandfather (a carpenter) stored in that same box back in the 1800s. The guy himself is about 80 and has had that box of tools for at least forty years in that same spot without ever using them. None of the tools had any evidence of active rust, though they were clearly ancient and had a great patina. A box must, indeed, make a difference of some kind.

Jack