Restoring An Old Bevel Square

Another one of the things I do is restoring bevel squares. Not an overly complicated
project but it can be very satisfying in the end. As with the other pages. clicking
on the picture will bring up the full size version.

Can you say basket case?

Right ugly. There was no makers mark but looking at it I'd say that it is 19th
Century vintage.

The first part is to clean the blade

This show the 3 stages. First is a sanding. I used 150 grit to get the nasty off.
The second is after a trip to the wheel. I use a fine bronze coated wheel on a slow
(3500 RPM) grinder. With steel or iron I rarely get any scuffing. The last shot
is after being wet sanded with 400 grit paper. This gets rid of any sanding marks
left over from the first pass and also cleans off the bronze haze that the wheel
leaves.

Next is the handle

The first step there is to clean the brass. I use Noxon's Metal polish and 000 steel
wool. The threads on the screw will get cleaned with a small brass brush.

Next step is a visit to the stripper to remove the grime and what have you. Now
sometimes, the handle will go to the stripper first before I clean the brass. Just really
depends on if there is a lot of paint or hand gunk built up. Sometimes after the
stripper and brass cleaning I'll give the wood a wash down with soap and water with
a soft scrubbing pad. The wood on this one is mahogany. Most are rosewood. After
washing it usually looks, well washed out, but that is easily fixed with a quick
wipedown with Minwax Dark Walnut stain. In either case (and this one didn't
need the stain) the body and the blade get wiped down with my not secret
beeswax & linseed oil sauce. I also oil the screw threads.

Now for the finished product.

Far from perfect. There is some pitting on the back of the blade But all in
all, it looks a whole lot better than when I started with it.