How to Deal With Rusty Hands

[Jimbo76]

Hello, I have several sets of Hamilton hands that are rusty. Is there some way to refinish them or is there someone to send them to. Most are for 992 B and should be Black. I suppose paint wont do it ?

[John Cote]

I have had some success buffing the hands off with rouge on a buffing wheel. It is a pain but you can do it. Then clean the hands really well in ammoniated jewelery cleaner and rinse with water and dry them.

Then you get a piece of 1/8 inch brass plate/sheet big enough to fit over the burner of a gas stove and file a nice little pile of brass powder. Put the pile of brass powder on the sheet of brass and put it over the burner of a gas stove. Put one hand at a time in the brass shavings/powder so that the boss is submerged a bit. have a long tweezers in your hand and a bowl of water near the burner. Heat the brass plate and watch the hand turn colors. (The brass shavings are so that the hand heats evenly. If you don't do this the boss with heat more slowly.

The following is a chart of the progression of colors:



When the hands get to Dark Blue grab them out of the brass and dunk them in the water. The nice thing about this is that you can heat them over and over until you get them right. After you get them to the right color you can buff the blue off of the top of the boss and voila...a great set of hands.

[Samantha]

A fiberglass scratch brush works great for removing rust, and then reblue them as John described.
Samantha

[Don Dahlberg]

It is very important to get a good polish before bluing. I use white rouge. Then get it really clean. Finally, it is important to heat the hands evenly. Otherwise you get a rainbow effect with different colors at different locations on the hands. Heat slowly, so you do not have hot spots.

I made a bluing pan for hands and other items. It is a small piece of copper sheet attached to coat hanger wire with a wooden dowel handle.

hands1.jpg

Don

[Jimbo76]

Thanks guys ! I will try this. It looks easy enough and I have a gas stove. Great information on this forum !

[John Cote]

[QUOTE=Don Dahlberg;417202
I made a bluing pan for hands and other items. It is a small piece of copper sheet attached to coat hanger wire with a wooden dowel handle.[/QUOTE]

Don,

Thanks for the great pictures of your rig. Looks like I have some work to do. your way looks easier than mine.

[Samantha]

A small pan filled with sand will also provide a medium for even heat.
Samantha

[BCMontana]

Originally Posted by John Cote

I have had some success buffing the hands off with rouge on a buffing wheel. It is a pain but you can do it.

Wow, A buffing wheel sounds difficult. I know if I tried that, the hand would likely be launched off the wheel and either become embedded into the wall, or even worse, into some vulnerable body part!

Have much more experience than I at such things, I really would like to hear how you manage to hold on to a small hand using a bugging wheel.

I have had success using finer and finer grits of wet/dry sandpaper. If the hands are really gunked up with rust, I start with #400. Just a few rust spots usually requires a little rubbing with #1000. Then you can polish the hands with #1200 and #1500 sandpaper to create a nice surface for bluing.

I place the hand on a ceramic tile, and heat it slowly with a heat gun. Then just like the other methods, plunge it into water when it reaches deep blue color. Obviously you need a heat gun which will heat up to 580-600 degrees, and I'm not sure if they all do this. I use a heat gun because I find it easier to control.

A similar method works for re-bluing screws.

[HUDD]

i use the same method as B C Montana to blue the hands, but don't forget to pin small hands in place before using the hot air gun otherwise you could blow them away.
I use a home made bluing pan similar to Don's picture with some very small holes. This allows me to put a small panel pin through the centre boss of the hand and through the hole in the copper plate to loosely fix it.
This method of bluing as BCM says affords much better control of the bluing process. When the correct colour is obtained simply tip the hand with pin into a small dish of water or oil.

Hudd

[Scottie-TX]

One tip you may like for removing the piece from the heat and process is a mechanic's magnet - a small pencil-like magnet, often on a flexible handle. This, you hold in your free hand, poised for that moment of color you want. It can quickly whisk the hand from the heat and to your oil or water with complete control of it!