$5 Brace and Bit Restoration

So on my way home on Friday I stopped at the American Way Thrift Store... Pretty rare occurrence for me but I am glad I did. I walked around the store not really looking for anything in particular but way in the back, actually in the area where they take the stuff and put price tags on it before bringing into the store. I found an old Brace and Bit, it was pretty rusty but checking the chuck and the ratchet part I realized it was in good shape, also the grip and head didn't wobble too much... "This is in good shape" I thought to myself... so I went to the counter to pay and since it didn't have a price the lady called the manager and he said... $5.99, to which I countered $4.99, he said ok. What does a $4.99 Brace and Bit from a thrift store look like?

Yikes!!!!! What did I get myself into... Let me just say I have never restored a Brace and Bit, hell I have never really ever used one. But I find restoring old stuff very fun, so I started by taking everything I could apart. I was able to take the wood head off. The head is held in place by 2 little screws and the wood has a threaded center so the brace threads into it. The I took the Chuck off and the little jaws come out easily. I couldn't figure out how to take apart the handle or the ratchet I think they are pressure pressed and don't come off.

Ok Let's get started... First I covered the wood handle with blue tape to not hurt the wood with the rust remover, I used a product called Boeshield Rust Free, It's part of my rust prevention and cleaning for my tools. I sprayed all the metal with it and wiped it down, took a couple of rags just to get the dirt and grime off, I set a wire brush onto my drill and put my drill into my vise and held it on with a clamp so I could start getting the rust off the metal. I started with the Chuck and Jaws.

At this point I found the first set of marking on the Brace. "STANLEY RULE & LEVEL CO. NEW BRITAIN, CONN. USA" Pretty cool start considering I had never heard Stanley Tools to be called Rule & Level Co.

Next here are the cleaned up Jaws...

Next I worked on the Auger bit and the Brace body. This took the most time since the U shape makes it awkward to get the wire brush on it and its round making it even harder. It was actually a lot of fun to watch the rust start coming off and revealing the metal... at this point I started to realize it didn't feel like tool steel, not sure why but just the feel was off, but what do I know I thought. So while removing the rust of the body I revealed the model number. One side says VICTOR and the other side says No 955 - 10IN and then upside down in larger stamping there is an SP12 (this looks off or put on later).

So after finding this all restoration halted and I ran into my office to do some research on this Brace. I was able to find a site that says it is from 1885....Wait what? 1885 yes its is over 130 years old...or at least the patent for it is... they made this brace until about 1915 so it could be anywhere in that range. That still makes it over 100 years old. The next thing I found out about this Brace is that it is Nickel plated, which makes so much sense why it didn't feel like tool steel, it actually feels like a nickel coin. After the wire brush I used a polishing wheel and gave it a pass on all the metal parts just to shine it up a bit.

Now the easy part, sanding all the wood parts which I found out from the web that they are Fruitwood/Hardwood, pretty descriptive if you ask me... LOL! After sanding I put a coat of Boiled Linseed Oil to darken the wood and I will be putting a coat of shellac to protect the wood once the BLO dries. When I put the oil on the wood it revealed a weird "4" shape that was put onto the head with a series of little holes, not sure what craftsman in the past did that or why but its interesting.

Next I went back to my computer and watched a few videos on how to sharpen the Auger bit and started sharpening the bit, its pretty easy, you just have to know which parts to file sharp and which ones not to touch because you don't want to change the size of it.

Then I assembled the Brace and Bit added 3-in-1 oil to the mechanical parts (every household should have a small bottle of 3-in-1, stuff if awesome for everything), then I added a coat of Boeshield T-9 Corrosion protection. I wiped everything clean, tested it and FINITO! Only thing left was to photograph it. Get ready for some Sexy Tool Porn!