Loading…
36
Shoutout to the wire wheel on my bench grinder, 3 years of rust gone in 20 minutes and now I can't decide if I should have just bought new
I pulled a pair of old slip joint pliers and a rusty hatchet out of my grandpa's shed in Modesto back in 2021, they were orange with rust and the jaws were frozen solid. I soaked them in vinegar for two days, scrubbed with steel wool, and got maybe half the rust off before I gave up and shoved them in a drawer. Fast forward to three weeks ago, I finally bolted a wire wheel to my bench grinder and hit that same hatchet for about 20 minutes, and it came out looking almost new, the pitting is still there but the edge cleaned up nice and I rehung it on a new handle for $14. Here's where I'm stuck though. Half the folks I talk to say old tools are worth saving because the steel was made better back then, and the other half say I burned two hours and a set of gloves on a $5 hatchet I could replace at a swap meet. My grandpa's stuff has sentimental value so I lean toward restoring, but I've also spent money fixing tools that honestly should have gone in the scrap bin. So what's the line for you guys, do you restore anything with a family connection no matter the cost, or do you only put in the work when the tool was actually good to begin with?
0 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In0 Comments
No comments yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this discussion.