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Have you picked up a Stanley Bailey pattern bench plane from a flea market recently? Is your old plane showing some wear? This little French polishing trick is what I use to keep the wooden totes and knobs on my hand planes looking freshly restored all the time.
Before working on the finish I take a piece of 0000 steel wool and I scrub the tote down to remove any old grime or paint that may have built up on it over the years. If you are doing this for a second time, don't scrub too much unless you have made the handle really grimy again. 0000 steel wool will leave your tote clean and with a nice satin finish.
I always keep a little shellac mixed up at all times. I have plastic squeeze bottles that I purchased from Woodcraft, Lee Valley, or some other such place, and I always keep a couple with some fresh shellac in them: a bottle with some white shellac, and one with orange. I always buy my shellac in flake form and I don’t keep very much mixed at any one time, unless I have a project brewing. I take a mason jar and throw an inch or two of flakes in the bottom, then pour in enough denatured alcohol just to cover the flakes. At that point I screw the lid on and shake the daylights out of the mixture every few minutes for a half hour or so. The solution is set aside until the next day. Once it has sat for about 24 hours, I filter it through a coffee filter (yes I like my shellac clean) into the plastic squeeze bottle. That produces around an 8 pound cut - or eight pounds of shellac per gallon of alcohol. Yes, I know it isn’t a gallon, but that is how shellac is measured. You really want to work with about a 2 to 3 pound cut for this type of work so you have to add more alcohol. Adding denatured alcohol until you reach twice the volume will give you around a 4 pound cut, and in turn, doing so again will make a 2 pound, or slightly weaker cut. I wouldn't double it the second time, but rather add about half as much. That should leave you with a good three pounds of shellac per gallon. It is great stuff to have lying around.
To spruce up your plane totes and knobs, find a piece of lint free cotton and some cotton balls to make a little rubber. I have an old handkerchief, wrapped around some of those cotton makeup cleaning circles, that I keep store in a jar with some alcohol in the bottom - to keep it from drying out. Place the cotton balls, or makeup things, in the center of the cloth and drizzle a couple squirts of shellac over them until they are damp. Do not soak them completely. Next wrap the cloth tightly around them to form a ball. Make sure the ball is smooth so it doesn't leave marks on the tote. Test the rubber for readiness by holding it in one hand and smacking it against the back of the other hand. A slightly sticky, rubber sized circle of shellac should be left. If you hear a squishy sound while doing this, or the rubber runs, you have too much shellac. You may have to remove the filling and squeeze some of it out.
Using your rubber, layout strips of shellac on the tote, as close to along the grain as you can, overlapping them slightly. At first you will have quite a bit of shellac in the rubber so it pays to apply it evenly like any other finish. As you notice the rubber releasing less and less shellac, start rubbing in small circles. In few seconds the rubber will feel like it is grabbing. When this happens, use your finger to place a dot of mineral oil on the tote, then keep polishing.
Continue rubbing, applying oil as necessary, until your rubber has no more shellac to give. This whole process shouldn't take more than a few minutes. If you have rubbed evenly all over the tote, you should have a beautiful, high gloss finish on your handle. I don't recommend doing this unless you have finished with the tool for the day as, for best results, the plane should sit for 24 to 48 hours so that the shellac can fully harden. If a small bit of oil remains, use a clean, lint-free cloth slightly dampened with denatured alcohol to quickly and evenly rub down the handle. After this spiriting off, the oil will be gone.
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