Painting vintage tools

[softailgarage]

Opinions wanted. I saw this CL add and it looks like he cleaned and painted them. One half of me likes it, they look good. However, being a bit of a purist, the other half thinks it was a sin and the "patina" should have been left intact. I have scores of vintage wrenches and have always used them as they are. What about value? would you pay more for cleaned and painted?

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/esd/tls/3920394148.html

 

[Exceller8]

I personally hate painted tools. I won't buy them unless they're a killer deal.

Quick story:

I was working at my house about 13 years ago and a contractor that was there with me kept taking my tools. I got pissed off and painted all of my tools red.

I still find a few of the red tools floating around the shop now an then.

 

[softailgarage]

Did you catch him red handed?

 

[motormitch]

You guys would hate me. I have an extensive vintage snap on tool collection and also all of them have been hand and machine polished by me to look close to chrome as possible. I have needle nose pliers and ratchets from the late 20's and early 30's that you would swear were chromed. I spent hours removing "pantina" which was largely rust. Most folks that see them usually love them, but the purists all cry softly. For me, it just what I like and long after I am dead they will have new patina....

 

[PCO6]

For some auto restorations painting the original tools that came with the car would be accurate. I don't like painted tools personally but those aren't the type of tools you would actually use on the car anyway.

 

[softailgarage]

Buah Buah Buaaaaaaah

In other news, I usually don't buy anything that has been re-painted or repaired by someone else, especially if they only did it to make it worth more. I fix tools for personal use all the time, but I don't usually trust the purity of the motives of others that fix a tool I want to buy and use. In most the cases I have come across, the new paint has been used to cover up a small crack that would have been easily noticed without it, to cover a weld done to fix a crack, to cover up the aftermath left after owner's marks were polished away, to cover up the fact that the tool edge has been heated from improper use and as a result had the tempering of the metal lost, or to cover up the heat burning of the original paint from someone using a torch to bend a pipe wrench handle back to straight etc.

I have bought pipe wrenches with slightly bent handles and original paint and fixed them myself, but if someone else fixes them and then paints over the evidence before I see it I never know how bent the handle actually was to begin with or if it was fixed correctly so it becomes a pass.

I hear this alot. ***** for me as I like to restore Craftsman Table Saws from the 50's & 60's. Working on #3 and all going on craigslist.

You guys would hate me. I have an extensive vintage snap on tool collection and also all of them have been hand and machine polished by me to look close to chrome as possible. I have needle nose pliers and ratchets from the late 20's and early 30's that you would swear were chromed. I spent hours removing "pantina" which was largely rust. Most folks that see them usually love them, but the purists all cry softly. For me, it just what I like and long after I am dead they will have new patina....

What about value, do you think they're worth more now or before? Not knocking you.

 

[motormitch]

I hear this alot. ***** for me as I like to restore Craftsman Table Saws from the 50's & 60's. Working on #3 and all going on craigslist.



What about value, do you think they're worth more now or before? Not knocking you.

I'm sure that extensive polishing lowers the value to a serious collector who tracks value etc. but what I've found is that if I pick up a 30s-40s era pair of pliers for around $20-30 on ebay and then polish the fire out of it, I can sell it for $50 which is what a pair that was in highly collectable condition would go for as an example. Now ratchets are a different story. For some reason, people really value the patina-ed look. Hey, they the polished ones look awesome on display in my office.

 

[FunkyfullWidth]

Alot of the hand me down tools I got from my grandfather were hand me downs from his father. They're mostly tools i already have or that I don't have a need for. Those tools I would love to restore with a fresh paint job and keep to pass on to my kids or grand kids some day.

With other tools. If the thing is roached, I see no problem with cleaning it and painting. But in a collectable condition, I might cringe a little bit unless it's brought back to absolutely original looking or just really awesome.

 

[zack99]

I'm OK with a good and careful cleaning. However, I think painting ruins an old tool. If I wanted it to look new I would buy new.

 

[p0lar]

I suppose one could make the argument that repainting a car anything other than the factory colour it was shipped with is also a crime, but it seems to happen with relatively high frequency compared to repainting tools.

I'll repaint some, and others I'll simply wipe down. Even others yet, I'll blast or wire-wheel brush and then oil. It's your tool, do as you please!

Anecdotally, I actually just picked up a JH Williams 12" deep-throat C-clamp yesterday that was rusted fiercely, to the point the screw was locked. A bit of oil, a very light deburring on one thread, and a few runs through it and it was free. Since I have no intention of simply hanging a rusted (but working) tool up in my garage, I used a fine blasting media to remove the bulk of of the dirt/rust, cleaned it well with acetone, and repainted it. I'll lubricate the screw well afterwards and I'm going to put it into service (again). If I ever want it to look rusted again, all I have to do is strip the paint and leave it in the rain in the back yard.

Regardless of what colour it's painted, I'm quite certain at least half those who are 'purists' would still want the tool at their disposal rather than not.

 

[ganymede]

If its cheap I don't mind paint. Just 'Strip Ease' it off.
As has been said, it can be camo for some hack job but I'm lucky enough to not have run into that yet.
The wrenches in the op craigslist ad are far overpriced.

 

[rick carpenter]

I tie dye mine.

 

[jusridin]

I much prefer the patina, nothing excites me more than opening a tool drawer and seeing the age of my tools and the history they have created. That's what got me into the vintage tools to start with.
However, occasionally you run into a great deal on something that is unusable in its current state so I refinish it to make it function again. I won't sell those items because I feel like I have taken away the history behind them and just don't seem right to me.
As far as price goes? I personally don't buy anything that looks new, I love seeing the old tools that someone has meticulously redone out of love for their tools but I would have an extremely hard time paying for that.
Just my two cents

 

[jmm]

As much as I'd like to be all about functionality, part of the allure of the old stuff, for me, is the look. Those wrenches are in bad taste. They didn't need to be painted in order to be used, it just seems they were painted to increase their value or something. I don't mind if something's been taken to a grinder to get rid of flaking chrome, or dipped in rust-stripper to get rid of really bad rust. But paint, unnecessary 'restoration'? Thumbs down.

 

[Iron Cat]

I like the look of restored tools a lot. but if im buying used/old tools I prefer them in their worn state.It usually tells me the tool has been tried an tested with time,not potentially flawed/fixed covered in paint.But given a choice between 2 tools of equal quality,one worn looking,one restored.Id take the restored/painted tool everytime.