Why do we use oil when cleaning old saw blades

[Joe Tilson]

I have been cleaning up some of the old saws I have been collecting over the past year. I started putting oil on the blades from the get go and found all this did was cake up the sand paper. Then remembering, I believe it was Jim K., who talked of using a razor blade to scrape off the rust. Have tried several ways including orbital sander without oil, which got rust dust all over the shop, oops. Please direct me to the correct blog from SMC that would help.
Thanks,
Joe

[David Weaver]

If you're going to use oil or WD 40 once the rust that sticks up is cut off by a blade, you need to use enough oil so that the paper flushes. As in, just coating the rust with oil won't do anything, you need to have a flow going with wet and dry paper, same as oilstones when you want the swarf to move, there needs to be enough oil for it to be suspended in the swarf.

[Jim Koepke]

Rust dust suspended in oil will help prevent getting the rust dust all over the shop.

Someone else suggested using aluminum foil on a saw plate but it didn't do a lot for me.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Please direct me to the correct blog from SMC that would help.

If you use the SMC search function for > saw cleaning < you will get a lot of information of how the power tool users approach this.

If you use the SMC search function for > hand saw cleaning < you will get more information from the Neanderthal Haven side of the Creek.

jtk

[Cody Kemble]

I use mineral spirits to keep things moving. I always scrape with a razor in a holder first.

[steven c newman]

would a LONG soak in Kerozene help out? Either straight from the put away Kerozene Heater's tank, or that blue can of WD40. The foil works a bit better with a coating ( spots, actually) of Autosol spread out on the blade.

super rusty plates, i will just chuck an 80 grit paper into a palm sander, and go to town on the rust. Rust leaves ( I use a saw bench outside on the back patio) and then the finer stuff comes out. Once the plate is all nice and shiny, a rub down with 3in1 oil on a rag, before they get hung upIMAG0117.jpg

[Bill Brush]

I started using "Evaporust" to clean up my old tools and I love it. Dunk the tool in the stuff, leave it there for a few hours, pull it out and it's clean. If you care, it's also environmentally friendly, safe for bare hands, and cleans up with water. Awesome stuff. If the saw is a collector piece I do not know what it would do to the etch, but I would not expect it to bother.

I bought my jug at the local auto-parts store.

[David Weaver]

How does the brightness of the plate come out from evaporust? Every chemical or electrical method I've tried etches the surface of the metal and makes it grayish. I'm not a big fan of that, but once a saw plate gets some pitting in it, it really doesn't matter - it's just preference.

[Joe Tilson]

Dave,
I agree on the evaporust. I used citric acid on one plate and it did just like you said. If there is something else we need to clean it up with Bill, please let us know what it might be. I do agree evaporust does get the rust off, but it's just not clean enough for me.

Thanks for all your feedback guys, it is appreciated.
Joe

[Bill Brush]

Nope it comes out dull gray, but from there I would think it would be simple to polish it up since you're not removing oxidation, just polishing the surface. I dipped a plane, and the sole went from dull gray to shiny with just a few passes on some sandpaper. If you want mirror finish, that might take a bit more.

[Mike Siemsen]

use water and a pumice stone or grill cleaning stone to remove a lot of rust (go outside, use the hose) polish with sandpaper and WD 40 or oil.

[Joe Tilson]

Mike,
Don't you have problems with flash rust after using water to clean a plate? I know in some cases I have used a hair drier to help keep said rust from forming after wiping off with paper towels.
Thanks for your response.

[David Weaver]

I do what mike says, and often use water or wd 40. If I've done a plate with water, I've never had trouble with it, but my plates see beeswax and oil mix soon after they are as clean as I want them to be. WD 40 would do the same thing and prevent any rust - that's probably what it was intended to do, anyway - displace water.

That's my experience across the board with planes, etc. Just dry them off well and leave them in an area where the humidity is below 60%, no need for a hair dryer.

[Mike Siemsen]

It doesn't rust that fast! dry it off and go to Wd 40 or some such and sandpaper to polish. Plus yopu are not using anything nasty to get the job done.

[Kim Malmberg]

You don't need to use any oil at all. In fact avoid it. It is environmentally harmful, it smells and the funds aren't exactly good for you either.
If your saw is very dirty, then start by cleaning off any swarf and saw dust with warm water and a rug.
Then if the saw is very rusty a window scraper or a razor blade might be helpful for removing the large portion of rust.
Alternatively a good soak in citric acid will also help. This method doesn't harm the environment and has the advantage of a lot of rust being removed without you doing anything which again means that you don't need to abrade as much which again saves you some money.
After this you can follow with window cleaning agent and medium fine sandpaper followed by more window cleaner and finer paper.
Aluminium foil won't do a thing alone but combined with Autosol paste it will work very well on very lightly rusted tool or as a final polishing method. I use this method on almost every tool I clean up. Sometimes it is the only treatment the tool receives.
If you don't trust me on the window cleaner then trust Matt Cianci who uses the same method. See here:

http://www.wkfinetools.com/contrib/c...awPlate-01.asp