Over the years I have picked up numerous old tools at farm estate auctions. Usually I wait until everyone else has bid on individual items and "buyers choice" and the auctioneer lumps everything else into a "buyer takes all for one price" . They do this to get the highest prices on the most desired items and then, after everyone has gotten what they really wanted, what's left goes for next to nothing. Thus, I wind up with numerous useful tools, some of which are fine to use as-is and others needing work, often just new handles. For smaller tools, a similar process leaves some "box lots", that is everything in the box for one price, and most of what is there is not worth much or in very bad shape. These go so cheaply though, $1 to $3 often that, if I spot just one good item, it is worth it. Often, I come away with many treasures!
Then there are the beloved tools, purchased by my mom and lost by me in the process of working outdoors. Like my favorite Japanese hand sickle I was using to cut the growth under the electric pasture
fence. I still haven't figured out a way to keep my tools attached to me and often they get lost in the greenery, mulch or leaves on the ground. That sickle was missing for at least 5 years or more. When I finally find these tools, the
carbon steel is more than rusty, it is pitted like some of the ancient auction tools.
So my question is, how do you renew these tools? I know how to haft a new handle but I'm not sure how best to heal steel.
Please share your recipes for making old rusty tools good again.
Thanks!
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