tote refinishing

Karda

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hi, i have an old plane I am cleaning up, the knob black and caked with black paint and it is harder that any paint I have worked with. I tried paint remover but I never had much luck with it. i tried scraping it but it is very hard. Any ideas on a better way to do this. I want to refinish the tote as well. This finish is so smooth and hard I thought it was plastic, its not. The company name is in the side of the tote I want to preserve that thanks
 

Bigg081

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If you have a lathe, put the knob in the chuck and sand. This is what I did when I refinished a few hand planes.
 

Karda

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Hi, I put the knob on my lathe and this is the best I can do, the dark area are the original paint and it won't go away

knob.jpg
 

Bigg081

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Looks like the paint is deep in the grain. Hopefully your new finish will hide that.
 

Mr. Peet

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Can't say I follow your thoughts. Usually when refinishing a tool, you try to match the original. So the knob looks great and ready to be caked with black paint.

I used to dip the item, versus spray. Each to their own. I think Miller's Falls tumble dripped their's, but that was lead based paints, they finished a lot easier in some ways. My brother has done the tumble painting with water based paint, knobs for Grizzly molders. They just looked gaudy.
 

trc65

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Stanley BaileyPlanes prior to WWII used rosewood for totes and knobs and were varnished. During, and after WWII, they were "hardwood" that was stained red or painted black. As your knob has very little color or figure I would just paint it black again.

Since the tote has a manufacturers label on it and you want to preserve that, the only real way to deal with it is to clean the tote as best you can and give it a clear coat. Doing anything other than re-painting the knob would mis match it with the tote.
 

Karda

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I repainted the knob i will probably leave the tote alone. It has some paint spots on it it is otherwise fine just looks like plastic even though it is wood. I like the real wood look and feel
 
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