Restoring Snap On industrial black

[gte718p]

I buy a lot of tools locally. Several of the flea market and storage auction guys know me and sell me the higher end stuff. I generally keep one or two pieces for my collection and sell the rest. I got a call this week to about buying a bucket of Snap On tools. I've been offered a lot of Snap On tools, but never a bucket.
On of the most fun things about buying tools is meeting the people. The gentleman I bought from was retiring and moving to Florida and needed to downsize his tool collection. Both the guy and his father had worked for Norfolk Southern on train engines. A five minute business transaction turned into and hour and a half conversation.

Anyway on to the tools.

I think this one is particularly cool:

I think it turned out to be a pretty good haul. I have more tools then any one person could possibly need so I'm only going to keep a few. This is the first time I've purchased industrial black tools. Some of them are rusting. Some of the tools date back to the '50s but most are in '70s to '80s. I'm not worried about patina, I just can't stand rusty tools. was going to dump them in evaporust, but I'm concerned it will take the blueing off.

Is there a better way? Should I just take the coating off and reblue them, or just wire wheel the rust and oil them?

Also if you see anything you want just yell. Most are going into the classified section after I clean them up.

 

[OHMS LAW]

Steel wool.

 

[ADSR]

Love the look! Nice score!

 

[bwh998]

what size drive is the blued ratchet? if you decide to sell it shoot me a message.

 

[gte718p]

Steel wool.

Do you oil it or blue it afterwords? I was thinking something like this would offer good protection.

 

[plinker]

A fine bristle wire wheel would work good too. If your planning on selling the tools I dont know if I'd bother blueing them, but it's up to you.

I think the industrial finish is some type of stain or oxide as blueing or parkerizing are not a match (but would work well, IMO).

 

[gsmornot]

When I clean tools like that I use a fine brush on my grinder then coat with Rem Oil. The gun oils you have shown should work as well. The rust seems to come back a little over time but a quick run on the wheel and another coat does the trick.

 

[itwnexus]

Wouldn't it be better to use electrolysis or dunk the tools in white vinegar?

 

[zkling]

Black oxide finish or bluing as it is call in the gun community. Is a form of oxidiation / rust. Usually any methoted used to clean the item, if it will take off rust, it will take off bluing.

The best would be copper or bronze wool, then fine steel wool. Use as little pressure as possible. Vinegar, evapo rust, electrolysis etc. will all remove the finish.

As for re applying the black oxide finish. Unless you plan on keep them or sell them to a collector I don't think it will be worth it. True black oxidizing can be a very nasty process to do at home (boiling solution of NaOH, KnO3 and H2O). Actually I just did a small batch of parts the other day. Definitely not a fun process.