# Tool chest and tool restoration/care



## Tim457 (Jan 11, 2013)

I've been wanting to get into hand tool woodworking and I found a good deal on a tool chest that had most of the tools on my minimal hand tool list in it for under $200. I literally saved the tools from being sent along with the chest to an interior decorator to be desecrated as the guy I bought it from put it. Now that I have it I've got lots of questions on how best to restore and or care for the chest and the tools. The chest is in fairly rough shape and has sheet metal covering parts of it and metal brackets on the edges. It seems to be painted silver where there isn't sheet metal. I'd be surprised if it's worth much by itself or was even very old. The sheet metal has some rust, but mostly surface. Is the chest worth doing much to, or can someone recommend a simple treatment to keep it from deteriorating? Lacking any other ideas I think I'd throw some paste wax on the outside to slow down further rust.

Now for the tools. There's 2 Disston & Sons saws, but they aren't in great shape. The brace is in very good shape except for the fairly stable oxidation coating on the metal. It's a Fulton, looks a lot like the one here. Various of the tools are in need of de-rusting, such as the plane irons and the brace bits. Is there anything in there that jumps out as valuable that I shouldn't proceed with setting up an electrolysis tank?

The outside









side view and inside









The tools that were in it and the tills:









Finally some oddball tools I wasn't quite sure what they were I put below. I also didn't know what the plane on the long handle with the rotating head above was called or used for.









Thanks for looking, I'm excited to get these cleaned up and in top shape, so any ideas and links on how to proceed doing that the right way would be great. Like the Humble Hand Brace Guide but for everything.


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## paratrooper34 (Apr 27, 2010)

Tim, looks like you made a decent score there. I once contemplated getting a nice, old joiner's chest to store my tools in. But I opted for a wall cabinet instead. I saw a lot of these chests while looking for one. Yours looks pretty utilitarian, which is probably a good thing as restoration and historic value don't seem to be what you are looking for. For the chest, I would very simply cover it with a fresh coat of either milk paint or a milk paint like product and call the outside good. I would then clean up the inside by vacuuming and applying a new coat of BLO to hopefully get rid of the bigtime musty smell they all have. I would make any alterations to store tools I want to add. And that's it. I would then use it to house my tools.

The nice thing about your chest is it is portable and makes your tools mobile. That portability can come in handy. Good Luck!


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## Smitty_Cabinetshop (Mar 26, 2011)

Tim, you've made a great buy. Just for the planes (couple of blocks, coffin smoother, iron smoother, fore, wooden jointer) and chisels and saws/sawset you made break even. Add the chisels, bits & brace, etc. and it's even better. Like getting that great old chest for free. Rulers, bevel gauges, drill driver, wow… And the lock on the chest would set you back $35 (at least) if you'd go to buy a new one. Hope you can find (or have made) a key!

Ditto what Mike said. Sand the metal parts and apply some primer to those. Then paint the whole thing a color of your choice. Lots of examples on the interweb, but black is common. I've done a series here on LJs to rehab a chest it's not complete, but almost. Everything I could say about tool chests is already in that series, if you're interested.

Good luck, great scrore! There are few 'wrong ways' to go, so have fun with your new toys.


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## DouginVa (Mar 5, 2012)

Nice find. If you're referring to the top tool in you last pic (oddball tools), the one with the iron handle and what looks like spurs on it's end, I believe that's used to "dress" the stones on a bench grinder. You sit the spur end on the tool rest and run the spurs along the stone.


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## JoeinGa (Nov 26, 2012)

Doug, you best me to it. That is indeed a stone dresser for an electric grinder. After using a grinding wheel, you'll get grooves and ridges in the face of it, plus the edges will get pretty well rounded off. This wheel will flaten that stone and square up the face. I have one and it works great. I cant remember how many stones I replaced before I came across this tool

Just hold it firmly against the stone while sliding it back and forth with even pressure. The 2 little "feet" will hold it squarely against your tool rest.

It make *A LOT OF SPARKS*.... so be ready for that the first time you push it into the stone.


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## JoeinGa (Nov 26, 2012)

The red-handled wheel thingy is either a glue spreader, or perhaps just a small laminate roller for applying pressure when you glue laminate trim.

And I cant see them too clearly, but the 2 pliers MIGHT be hog-ring installers and removers?


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## DonBroussard (Mar 27, 2012)

Nice score! I got an old chest from a flea market that had a few tools in it, but nothing nice like you got. Black would make a nice color for the tool box, but you are the only one that needs to be pleased with the presentation.

Two of your saws look like skew backs-a closer pic of the tote and medallions would help the experts with identification. As for the unknown tools, in the middle of the picture it looks like you got a pair of nunchucks (jokingly).


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## JayT (May 6, 2012)

I also didn't know what the plane on the long handle with the rotating head above was called or used for.

If you are referring to the red handled tool next to the block planes in the photo, it looks like a #70 box scraper.

Edit: Very cool chest and nice score on all of that for the price, by the way.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Nice score. I'd leave the chest alone. The patina is just right. If it needs any repairs, follow the Smitty school of chest repairs.


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## paratrooper34 (Apr 27, 2010)

Don, excellent point….it does have a nice patina on it!


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## Tim457 (Jan 11, 2013)

Thanks for all the comments guys, that's a lot of ideas to follow up on. Mike, I'm interested in the historical value/preservation, but I just don't know if it's very old or authentic to be honest, and for the tools at least, thats a second priority to using them. Unless of course they are rare hidden gems that they don't appear to be. The chest is only somewhat portable. The sheet metal covering and brackets make it 100 pounds or so empty.

Don W, I do like the patina it has, but I'm concerned about the rust progressing. When you say leave it alone, do you mean no protective at all?.

Smitty, what I assume is the key was indeed in one of the tills. It's broken, but not at the important part so I'll be able to make or have a new one made. Thanks for the rehab link. I'll definitely have a look at that.

Joe & Doug, thanks for the ID on the other tools. Dressing wheel makes sense.

Don B, the middle of the three hand saws has no medallion, just some carving. The bottom one only says "Warranted superior" in the medallion with an eagle in the middle. I'll try to get some better pictures when I get a chance. I didn't realize the forum picture would scale it down so much.

Jay, the red handled tool, is indeed a box scraper, I finally figured that out last night after I posted, but before this was approved. I just noticed the blade says Stanley, but I can't find any markings on the tool itself. Now I need to see if I can find another use for a box scraper. They are described as single use tools.

My biggest question besides what to do with the chest I guess is what to do first with the tools? De-rust them or clean and oil them?

Also, any idea, what the slots in the back of the bottom of the chest are set up for? The setups I'm more familiar with have either more space for molding planes or similar or much less for chisels and such.


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## Surfside (Jun 13, 2012)

Great score! You're lucky to have those!


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## SCOTSMAN (Aug 1, 2008)

I have seen several of those types of chests here in the uk marked as ex army surplus tool boxes-chests.They are very well made and you could with a little elbow grease make this a lovely old chest I wish you well. Have fun Alistair


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## Ted78 (Dec 3, 2012)

Maybe someone beat me to it, but the thing with two cylinders is a old alcohol blow torch.

Nice find on the trunk and tools


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## Tim457 (Jan 11, 2013)

Alcohol blow torch, that's pretty cool. it does have some wicking inside the one cylinder. It's a little surprising that it would work given that the metal it's made out of isnt very thick. I'll have to learn how to get it working and see how hot it can get. It's in great shape.


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## zwwizard (Mar 30, 2008)

Re;Alcohol blow torch. Fill the tube with the curved tube with alcohol and the other tube saturate the packing with alcohol. light the tube with the packing and position the curved tube over if with the cap(if it has one) off. When the tube heats up you should see a flame shooting out of the tube. Make sure the the tube has a good seal on it or you will have a hand full of fire. (don't ask) The unit will do light silver soldering jobs.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

If you clean it up, it should be fine. It took 100 years of misuse to get to where it is, so being given some love will be wonderful for it.

What are the hand planes? They look decent, along with the saws.


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## Tim457 (Jan 11, 2013)

The older block plane says stanley on the front. The newer one only says stanley on the iron, but looks very similar. The coffin smoother has no markings I can find on the body, but the iron says Robi Sorby Warranted St Steel. The cap iron says ?arker?? Steel. Overall the coffin smoother is in very good condition except for the cap iron screw head is stripped some and the iron has some rust. The smoothing plane says Trustworthy and is in extremely good shape except the finish on the knob and tote is peeling. The jack says Sargent VBM and the blade says that and 414. The japanning is flaking and the knob has slight cracks, but the sides, sole, cap iron, and lever cap have a very nice patina. The jointer is a little beat up. The sole is decent except for some wear at the front and a crack at the rear and it has some finish dripped on it in a couple places. It doesn't have any markings I can find, but the iron says James:Cam Warranted Cast Steel. The spokeshave doesn't have any markings I could find, but has what apears to be the remains of a leather grip on the left side. Thanks again for looking and commenting. Oh and wow, Richard, thanks for the explanation and video of the alcohol torch.

Here are pictures of the top and sides:


















And a couple of the saw medallions.
The Disston & Sons tenon saw. It also has the stamp visible mostly on the blade, but didn't come through on a picture:









The Disston & Sons hand saw:









Of the two remaining saws, only one had a medallion. It's handle is very cracked and has been repaired with screws:


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## Tim457 (Jan 11, 2013)

I've been researching, mostly on the planes, and thought I'd mention what I'd found. The James:Cam mark on the jointer iron ended up being pretty useful, and I found several links describing that. The first link describes a book where the author plays detective on a 22" jointer with a James:Cam iron like mine. Maybe I'll have to hunt down the book because none of those links make it clear by the mark type wether the iron was made before James Cam's death in 1838 or after it, since the use of his name was continued a bit after that. Either way it's a pretty old plane.

The coffin smoother I didn't find much on, but the Robi Sorby mark hints that it is connected to The Robert Sorby Company.

The trustworthy smoother was apparently made by Sargent for the Trustworthy chain of hardware stores in the early 1900's. More info is hard to come by since there are currently hardware stores that go by that name but don't appear connected.

The Sargent jack has some hints that it might be in the older, slightly more valuable range. Sargent made planes under the VBM slogan from 1907 or 1908 to 1918, and the under side of the lever cap on this one does not have the two ribs, which indicates it might be as early as type two from what I read, though I can't find the link anymore. 1907 to 1918 might pin the type down by itself, I don't know. David Heckel's Sargent planes guide doesn't appear too easy to get any more. Does anyone that has a copy mind taking a look to see if they can identify what type this is?

The iron says 414 and the length of the body is 14 inches. The frog is numbered 409, but the plane is clearly not a 409, despite the iron having no camber.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

The SARGENT PLANE BOOK D. Heckel IDENT & VALUE GUIDE is almost always listed on ebay.

One of the dealers had a used one listed for $15 this month, but I can't find it.

By the looks of your lateral adjuster its a type 3 or latter. Type 2 had the horseshoe style and type 1 was prelaterial.


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## Tim457 (Jan 11, 2013)

Thanks Don that helps a lot. I'll rest easier putting it to use knowing it's not very valuable too. And checking ebay for the book? Brilliant!


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

I like Sargents


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