DIY Japanning for Tool Restoration projects!

In this video we try our hand at recreating a Japan black finish, or Japanning, One of my many hobbies is tool restoration, and recently I came into a number of old woodworking hand planes. Some of them are very rough and need to be restored back to a useable condition.
Japanning, or Japan black finish, was used extensively by tool manufacturers such as Stanley and even by Ford on some parts for their early models. After extensive research, I chose a recipe to try, and found a test plane so that I could experiment with different temperatures for baking this finish on.
The recipe we used was:
2 Parts Boiled Linseed Oil
5 Parts Turpentine
3 Parts Powdered Asphaltum (Gilsonite)
00:00 Intro
00:16 Mixing our Japanning recipe
02:30 Preparing our test "Victim"
03:12 The finished mix, painting it on
03:52 Test oven, and test run number 1
05:38 Test Run Number 1 Results
06:12 Prepping Test Run Number 2
07:03 Baking Test Run Number 2
08:57 Results of Test Run Number 2 and Final Thoughts
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[@GarageMisadventures]

If you have tried this process yourself let us know what you found to work best for you!

[@gregsnewyt]

Your Japan black mix appears quite thick and is not self leveling at room temperature. It may be easier to obtain a fully self leveled, smooth finish with a thinner mixture. Congratulations on your efforts to traditionally restore a Japan black finish.

[@dodgersfnshepard8673]

Any recipes for colors? I'm about to try this again. I can get the consistency right but I need color, I'm not emo😂

[@user-qq1ps8ty8c]

Thank you for sharing your experience in this. I agree with you in trying to reproduce things as they were. I have enjoyed your video. And will use your findings in my work. Thank you again for sharing what you learned.

[@GarageMisadventures]

Thanks Tim

[@thomasgronek6469]

Looks great, thanks. And thanks for making it thin enough to brush on. Singer sewing machine co dipped them three times, first night baked at 350 then polished, , ,dipped again, and baked overnignt again at 150, and again day 3 baked again at 150. The machines were polished after dipping all three times. after the third dip a sticky collagen gel was put on, then the gold leaf. It was rinsed, dried, and coated with Copal varnish. Great video, thanks. Would you consider using raw linseed oil. the raw has more double bonds, and forms a better adhesion to iron (cast iron pans are seasoned better with unsaturated oil than oxidized oil or saturated fats), I think it would adhere better, be harder, and be glossier, I don't really know, I'm ust looking at tyhe chemistry. Thanks again.

[@attra91]

Love the Vdubs!

[@GarageMisadventures]

Awesome! We do Volkswagen videos too, sometimes shows and sometimes projects. We just bought another one we haven’t even introduced that we will be doing a full rebuild as well. Thanks for watching, hope you stick around!

[@WoodfulProjects]

Interesting video. There are a couple of intstructive videos on japaning and yours is worth the watch. Thanks for sharing.

[@GarageMisadventures]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@rvburbank1]

Have you checked out Hand Tool Rescues video on Japanning? He did a long breakdown on how to do it and used 3 different recipes, he heated each smaller coats and it seemed to come out good.

[@GarageMisadventures]

I did come across his video recently. Once I posted this video KZbin started recommending Japanning videos to me. His results were similar to what I was reading online, and this particular mix got the best results. If you see my Stanley 75 vid, I did end up warming the plane body a bit and that helped it flow out better and it was easier to get nice thin coats. With the colder weather right now it was harder to get it nice and thin. Thanks for watching.

[@GT_Racer347]

Way cool 👍

[@Anonymous-it5jw]

Thanks for doing the research and experimentation to get this old process to work for you, and hopefully for your viewers. My questions are two: 1) Did you ever find one oven temperature, and/or time, where you could put a plane coated with your formula into a pre-heated oven and leave it for a specific time, without having to check it every half hour or so, and then adjusting the temperature periodically, based on your observations. In other words, could you pick 350 F or 400 F and leave it undisturbed for four and a half hours or so, and get the same great results that the original manufacturers got in their factories? 2) I haven't checked the formula source you mentioned, but were the quantities of the turpentine, boiled linseed oil, and Gilsonite (powdered asphaltum) based on volume or weight, or volume for the liquids and weight for the asphaltum, or something else? Thanks for making this video and restoring this enduring coating to modern usage.

[@westcoast_johnny]

Cool video, thank! I never heard of Japaning.

[@GarageMisadventures]

Thanks Johnny, glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for watching.

[@user-dw2xh7sh2i]

The japanese people also no know of you!)

[@tiredcreekironworks8123]

How did this video get by me? Great content, very interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[@GarageMisadventures]

Thanks Moe! Hey I've seen Japanning on the middle section of ball pein hammers and things before. It would be a cool old school coating to use on a blacksmithing project sometime... new ideas for possible uses!!

[@tiredcreekironworks8123]

@@GarageMisadventures I like it! I will dig into it, and see what I can get.

[@profomarait7161]

You may check hand tool rescue video, he uses the same recipe.

[@GarageMisadventures]

Yeah I came across his video here recently. His results were similar to what I was reading online, and this particular mix seemed to provide the best results even though there are other mixes out there. Many of them have the same ingredients in different proportions. I've had more time to play with it and use it on a couple more planes since this video and there is definitely a bit of a learning curve. I've had to play with it a bit and tweak my process a bit to get good results but I'm happy with how it's coming out. Thanks for watching.

[@user-dw2xh7sh2i]

What's the use of that? After all, when heated in the oven, the mastic becomes fluid. As a result, there is little coating left on the side walls of the housing! Ha-ha-ha! Moustache has not grown!))

[@vincentchov5760]

Will the oven used still be safe for cooking food? Also, since my oven rack is dirty, is it okay to put aluminum foil on top of the rack before putting the plane on top? Thanks!

[@GarageMisadventures]

I would not use the oven for cooking after. That is why I bought a $10 oven off Craigslist. Some of these chemicals are pretty nasty. I wouldn’t want to do it indoors. As far as foil, I would be slightly concerned about the foil sticking to the Japanning and not being able to remove it cleanly. But if you are careful I’m sure you could.

[@darkJohnSmith]

Why not use a can of rustoleum?

[@barxracerful]

would spraying it on help?

[@GarageMisadventures]

The consistency of the mixture is like molasses. I do not think you could get it to spray. If you paint it on evenly though it flowed out really nicely so long as it wasn’t too thick. Thanks for watching.

[@hdspringer99]

I had a VW thing. :)

[@GarageMisadventures]

Awesome they are fun aren’t they? We have some other vids on ours on our channel about ours if you are interested. Thanks for watching!

[@hdspringer99]

@@GarageMisadventures just subscribed. Thanks

[@GarageMisadventures]

Hey thank you! Hope you enjoy our projects.

[@truckdrivinmilanr]

That plane looks like someone converted that to a scrub plane.

[@TerryD15]

Please note, it will be soft straight from the oven, it is japanning not painting, it hardens as it cools, 150°C (300° prehistoric) should really give a great finish, but let it cool before going higher. This guy unfortunately just doesn't have the required patience.