Any advice for my latest project?

I'm cleaning up an old Stanley bench plane from the 50's. It has sentimental
value though not $ value. I've cleaned up the metal work and squared and
sharpened the blade, now I need to decide what to do with the handles.

As the paint was peeling off of them and had a nasty tendency to get lodged
in my hands and under nails, I took some 220 grit sandpaper and some steel
wool and sanded away the paint (red? maroon?) which left an interesting
purple stain on the bare wood underneath that fades into the more blondish
non-stained wood.

So, here's my question. What should I do next to them? I want to finish the
handles so I can protect the wood and ultimately use the plane again without
rubbing off in my hands. Ideally, I'd like a nice thick glossy finish to
show off the time its taken to get it working again.

I've been trying to get more into finishing some of my projects lately, so
in the past couple weeks I've been buying a whole bunch of things that I've
read about but have never used before.

So far my finishing shelf includes the following products: tung oil, danish
oil, linseed oil, denatured alcohol, penatrol, brush cleaner, Cabot
penetrating wood stain (colored amethyst - which looked dark purple on the
test piece in Lowes but looks more girly lavendar when I put some on some
scrap pine) and some Cabot gloss polurethane.

On a side note, does anyone know what products/finishes are on the handles
of these Lie-Nielsen planes?

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?cat=505

The wood on these handles is quite dark so I don't think I could make them
look like that but I've always wondered how to make a similar high gloss and
durable finish.

Thanks for bearing with my rambling question and advice on my project.

On Apr 20, 8:03*pm, "NOSPAM" wrote:
Any advice for my latest project?

I'm cleaning up an old Stanley bench plane from the 50's. It has sentimental
value though not $ value. I've cleaned up the metal work and squared and
sharpened the blade, now I need to decide what to do with the handles.

As the paint was peeling off of them and had a nasty tendency to get lodged
in my hands and under nails, I took some 220 grit sandpaper and some steel
wool and sanded away the paint (red? maroon?) which left an interesting
purple stain on the bare wood underneath that fades into the more blondish
non-stained wood.

So, here's my question. What should I do next to them? I want to finish the
handles so I can protect the wood and ultimately use the plane again without
rubbing off in my hands. Ideally, I'd like a nice thick glossy finish to
show off the time its taken to get it working again.

I've been trying to get more into finishing some of my projects lately, so
in the past couple weeks I've been buying a whole bunch of things that I've
read about but have never used before.

So far my finishing shelf includes the following products: tung oil, danish
oil, linseed oil, denatured alcohol, penatrol, brush cleaner, Cabot
penetrating wood stain (colored amethyst - which looked dark purple on the
test piece in Lowes but looks more girly lavendar when I put some on some
scrap pine) and some Cabot gloss polurethane.

On a side note, does anyone know what products/finishes are on the handles
of these Lie-Nielsen planes?

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?cat=505

The wood on these handles is quite dark so I don't think I could make them
look like that but I've always wondered how to make a similar high gloss and
durable finish.

Thanks for bearing with my rambling question and advice on my project.

If you can get down to the wood, I would use either the tung oil you
have or the danish oil.. They will make a nice finish on the handles.
Only that is really dry you can put a few coats of clear poly
waterbased finish.
If you want a black high gloss fininih them I would go with a black
enamel and then a few coats of poly.

Randy
http://nokeswoodworks.com

"NOSPAM" wrote:

On a side note, does anyone know what products/finishes are on the handles
of these Lie-Nielsen planes?

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?cat=505

The wood on these handles is quite dark so I don't think I could make them
look like that but I've always wondered how to make a similar high gloss and
durable finish.

Well, you can be pretty sure that it is NOT polyurethane. The
intersection between those who use Lie-Nielsen planes and those who
finish wood (other than floors) in polyurethane is probably pretty
small. In fact, according to their web site,

:The Cherry knob and handle are finished with wiping varnish and should require no maintenance.

Tung oil or BLO gives a nice finish, but no covering of the wood
underneath. Shellac gives a nice shine if that is what you are looking
for, Not real durable, but easy to repair/renew. If you want to use
polyurethane for the durability, I'd look into a wiping version, which
can give you a closer-to-the-wood, less "plasitcy" finish.
--
Alex -- Replace "nospam" with "mail" to reply by email. Checked infrequently.

You could replicate the paint finish and then a couple coats of
varnish over it for wear.

What I've done is to use gel stain to get the color I like, I use
Minwax cause it's locally available, but others will do. If you
started with a Mahogany stain, or cherry stain you will get a sort of
red with the grain showing through.

I mostly use shellac, because you can put a lot of coats on quickly,
and it dries so fast that dust can't get to it and mess up the
finish. Sand with 400 grit, a final coat of finish and then apply wax
with steel wool. It gives a voluptuous feeling finish.

Wiping varnish will do the same thing, applied in the same way.



Old Guy
Who whas too many planes, but loved cleaning them up.



On Apr 20, 9:03*pm, alexy wrote:
"NOSPAM" wrote:
On a side note, does anyone know what products/finishes are on the handles
of these Lie-Nielsen planes?

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?cat=505

The wood on these handles is quite dark so I don't think I could make them
look like that but I've always wondered how to make a similar high gloss and
durable finish.

Well, you can be pretty sure that it is NOT polyurethane. The
intersection between those who use Lie-Nielsen planes and those who
finish wood (other than floors) in polyurethane is probably pretty
small. In fact, according to their web site,

:The Cherry knob and handle are finished with wiping varnish and should require no maintenance.

Tung oil or BLO gives a nice finish, but no covering of the wood
underneath. Shellac gives a nice shine if that is what you are looking
for, Not real durable, but easy to repair/renew. If you want to use
polyurethane for the durability, I'd look into a wiping version, which
can give you a closer-to-the-wood, less "plasitcy" finish.
--
Alex -- Replace "nospam" with "mail" to reply by email. Checked infrequently.