Rust

[Moses Yoder]

Why do woodworkers have such an aversion to rust? Always removing rust, keep from rusting, etc. There are very few places where rust actually affects the performance of a tool, yet if you try to sell a rusty tool on ebay you get pennies on the dollar. Is this somewhere in our genetics from past ancestors or is it a cultural thing or what?

[Mike Holbrook]

We like picking little nits off bigger nits, because we can! Once you get all the little nits segregated you have to take steps to keep them from reforming ranks for another attack.

There are some things that always grow larger if allowed to get started: a little drink, a little sex, just one potato chip...

[Jim Matthews]

Rust on a tool indicates more effort to get a tool into working condition.

Enough rust can indicate abuse of some tools.
If things have moving parts, rust can hide irreparable damage.

All things being equal, bright and shiny metal comes at a premium
that many of us are willing to pay.

[Jim Koepke]

I give thanks for rust.

Most of my tools would have been unaffordable if it wasn't for rust.

Now there is an Aretha Franklin tune running around in my brain.

R-U-S-T you see

Brings those tools to me

Rust, rust, rust let's have a little rust, rust, rust...

jtk

[john zulu]

Quite a few people have adversion towards rust. Rust on certain locations can be really bad for example the blade is rusted. If there is pitting on the back plate of the iron it will not allow the
sharpened edge to have a keen edge as the pitting interferes.

Rust on the plane could be be bad if the mechanism was affected by the rust. I personally polish out rust or spray clear coat on areas which are prone to rust like the sides of the plane .

[Shawn Pixley]

Why do woodworkers have such an aversion to rust? Always removing rust, keep from rusting, etc. There are very few places where rust actually affects the performance of a tool, yet if you try to sell a rusty tool on ebay you get pennies on the dollar. Is this somewhere in our genetics from past ancestors or is it a cultural thing or what?

Rust is the bane of my existence. Rust most certainly does affect an object's performance. On the winward side of my house unprotected stainless steel and brass door hardware has about a four-year lifespan. In the shop, I inherently vigilant about staying ahead of rust. Cleaning off even the smallest rust blooms is essential to keep it from spreading or progressing.

I live in a salt air environment. Rust happens faster here but it would progress for you too albeit slower. I ran an experiment to determine how quickly untreated iron is degraded by rust in a previous thread.image.jpg

This is six months of rust of a piece of iron sitting on our dining table. The large sheet is largely intact. the smaller piece has ha the top spdall off already

[Stew Denton]

I am like John and Jim (K.), and go for the tools with light rust that I can clean off, and spend a whole lot less money doing so. I do work at keeping rust at bay, especially on tools I use often, like Shawn, but here in the dry country I live in, and in the dry country I grew up in, rust is a much smaller problem than a lot of you face. Light surface rust can be easily dealt with in the case of HANDTOOLS, not so much with power tools in interior locations such as gears and motors.

To me rust is a problem in some locations on tools, as John pointed out above. Rust on a handsaw blade causes it to drag, making sawing a lot more effort than it should be. Rust also stains light color wood, and can be a pain to get off. Also, rust pitting on a saw, on the teeth, weakens them, and they can break off when sharpening, and particularly when setting them.

Rust can also accumulate in interior parts of tools, and when combined with oil or grease which slowly dries out and makes a dry hard gunk that interferes with gears and other moving parts and interfering with close tolerance parts, causing wear, stressing the tool, causes heat build up, etc. Rust is extremely bad in those cases. Thus, I will not buy a drill or other power tool of that sort that shows anything but traces of rust, as I suspect the rust indicates a much shorter useable life than would otherwise be the case.

As Shawn pointed out, rust can spread, so I try to get it off and kill the spot. I have a few old hand saws that I never use that I need to clean up and wax, so that they will be good for the next couple of generations to use. Rust is the bane of steel tools, and I fight it.

Stew

[ray hampton]

the best defense against RUST is to blue the steel or apply a brown finish

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Do you like using a dull rusty chisel?

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

It never sleeps.

[Moses Yoder]

Do you like using a dull rusty chisel?

THis is exactly what I am talking about. Rusty is equated to being dull, which is not at all the case. If the back of the chisel is lightly rusted and not pitted it can easily be polished, the bevel ground and honed, and the chisel is sharp. All of the rest of the chisel can be rusty and that does not mean it is dull. I think woodworkers remove rust because that is the style; they would be embarrassed to use a rusty chisel for fear of what the others think.

[Jim Matthews]

It never sleeps.

But it can develop Powderfingers.

[Stew Denton]

Hi Moses, I don't think I can necessarily agree that "woodworkers remove rust because that is the style; they would be embarrassed to use a rusty chisel for fear of what others would think."

I clean up tools for my own sake. I like them to be rust free and to look that way, even though no one ever looks at my tools. Also, as was pointed out above, rust grows under rust. Such is particularly the case in humid climates. If you don't stop rust spots they can form pitting under them, and the pitting continues to deepen over time. If you can clean off the rust, and clean it out of the pits, or clean it up and deactivate it, you prevent further damage. For example, I think Naval Jelly forms a very thin passive layer of iron phosphate in the bottom of the pits that stops further corrosion.

At any rate, I think things like waxing tools to prevent corrosion protects them and prevents further corrosion. Agreed, however, light rust in non-critical areas probably doesn't hurt the tool for practical woodworking.

Regards,

Stew

[Stew Denton]

I reread your original post, and think you have touched on something. I think that there is something inherent in our make up that causes us to like things certain ways. I can stand a certain amount of clutter, but my wife can not stand it, it really bothers her. An acquaintance I knew could not study if one of his shirts hanging in his closet was not straight on the hanger and evenly spaced in his closet...he would literally have to get up and straighten the shirt or it would bother him to the point he could not study.

I personally think God just made us as individuals, and he put individual natures in us. That said, I think he generally made us want to be organized and to like order and a certain amount of beauty and neatness. You look a people all over the world, and people want their houses to look nice, by and large, to have streets with houses lining along them is order, and generally speaking to avoid randomness and disorder. I think you have hit on it, there is just something inherent in our nature.

Stew

[Moses Yoder]

Well I did learn that I do not have to feel bad about removing rust, there is actually a reason for it in some cases.