|
Every once in a while a product comes along that earns “must have” status in the woodshop. I have been using Klingspor’s Sandflex® blocks for a few years now and I think of them as I would my trusty No. 4 smoother or a chisel. They are the kind of tool I will go out of my way to buy. According to the packaging, they are supposed to be useful for any number of applications but I find them indispensable in my fight against my arch enemy in the woodshop – rust.
Sandflex® blocks are 3 inch by 2 inch by ¾ inch thick and are made of some form of rubbery, eraser like material. Unlike those foam rubber blocks that are wrapped in sandpaper (which I think are as useless as can be), Sandflex® blocks are impregnated through and through with abrasive. Regardless of the amount of rubbing you do, you will always have fresh grit to remove rust from your fine tools. You can purchase the blocks in coarse, fine or medium grit and they cost only $3.95 a piece. I prefer to buy them as a set of three for $9.95, both to save a little money and because I like to have all three abrasive levels on hand.
The set of Sandflex® blocks shown in the pictures for this article are over three years old and only now am I looking to replace them. Because they are completely impregnated with grit, I won’t throw the old set out. They can be shaped to clean oddly shaped pieces. Once I get the new blocks, I will reserve them for flat surfaces for the time being.
So far, I all I have done is talk and reiterate the information you get easily from the Klingspor catalogue. Despite my best efforts to keep my tools from rusting, a recent stay in storage left me with a layer of the hated stuff on everything. At the beginning of this article, I showed you a photograph of a hand plane with some rust on it. That plane wasn’t badly rusted. In this photo you can see a similar plane, cleaned up, after 30 seconds of rubbing with the coarse Sandflex® block. It’s really too bad that I didn’t think to photograph this last plane before cleaning it up. It was horribly rusty. After a further 30 seconds of rubbing with each of the medium and fine blocks, you can see that the side of the plane has a nice, shiny surface. Very little effort and time were expended.
This past while, I have had far too many planes to restore – unfortunately. Even my Lee Valley shoulder plane, one of my favourite tools, appeared destroyed by the demon rust. Klingspor’s Sandflex® blocks have helped me to beat the red menace and without a great investment in time and money. I can’t recommend a product any more highly. Sandflex® blocks are available from Klingspor’s Woodworking Shop online or by phone at 1-800-228-0000. You can call 24 hours a day. And I should tell you, I received nothing for providing this glowing report. Happy woodworking.
|
