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  1. #1
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    Default Who knows things about tin snips? Restoring some.

    I have inherited a heap of vintage tin snips. Mainly Gilbow, English made, 'vintage' (AKA much older than me- probably 1960's)
    I've buffed off the surface rust and any remains of paint from the handles.
    What's the story with sharpening? what angle, how, any guidelines for adjusting tension the cutting blades? Some are rivet hinge, a few have the old nut and bolt trick.

  2. #2
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    Found a heap of restoring tin snips on YouTube, here's one of them.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G97sKX7HY_I
    HTH
    Kryn
    To grow old is mandatory, growing up is optional.

  3. #3
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Over the years I acquired many old snips through various family and other deceased estate clearances and ended up with a sizeable (50+) collection.
    Many moons ago I also discovered aviation snips which (especially for old parts) are much easier to use and leave a safer edge than regular snips so none of the old snips ever saw the light of day.
    I hung onto the old snip collection up until a couple of years ago and then decide to give them away so approached various hand tool preservation society people but no one was interested so almost all have ended in the scrap bin at the local tip. I have kept one pair that belonged to my uncle and one that belonged to my dad.

  4. #4
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    Default Sharpening angle for Tin Snips

    Quote Originally Posted by Commander_Keen View Post
    I have inherited a heap of vintage tin snips. Mainly Gilbow, English made, 'vintage' (AKA much older than me- probably 1960's)
    I've buffed off the surface rust and any remains of paint from the handles.
    What's the story with sharpening? what angle, how, any guidelines for adjusting tension the cutting blades? Some are rivet hinge, a few have the old nut and bolt trick.
    Memory goes back to our Metalwork Teacher at Ashfield Tech Sydney & I can recall him telling us the angle to sharpen tin snips is 87 degrees. ( a bit less than 90 degrees)
    This goes back to when I was 12 yrs of age & now 78.... so 66 yrs ago, but am sure that was the instruction at that time.
    Hope this is of some help.
    Bruce

  5. #5
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    Default

    87 degrees sounds reasonable, given that you want a fair bit of reinforcement on the edge.
    These belonged to my partner's grandfather, so somewhat sentimental. There are a few LH ones, a duckbill style, and mostly RH. That being said, I can't see myself using them (I have a few WISS pairs), but the golden rule of the shed is never throw anything out

    Thanks for the videos and advice. Looks like an achievable resto.

  6. #6
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by Commander_Keen View Post
    but the golden rule of the shed is never throw anything out
    I like this man!.

    Having done time as a Manual Arts teacher I have sharpened dozens and dozens of the things.
    Most of them were 12" Gilbows with the powder blue paint job.

    I have got the best results from use a 2nd cut file and follow the original angle.The usual trick is black the the cutting edges with a Sharpie marker to keep you on the straight and narrow. We just held them in a vice and found them very easy to work that way.

    The steel is not as hard as you might imagine it to be.

    Carefully file from outside to inside to raise the burr on the cleaving edges on both blades.
    The burr is removed with a really fine grit stone held absolutely flat on the inside cheeks.

    Once you get the "feel" of how tight the shear tension needs to be, you are off to the races.


    A well sharpened pair will shear a sheet of printer paper as well as a pair of scissors can.

    On some pairs,the screw thread and nut assembly may have been hammered to tighten it. A loose fit causes the material sheet being cut to fold.
    Be careful not to make them too tight as they are a real so and so to loosen to get the correct shear tension. Tap and tighten a wee bit at a time if you need to.
    The amount of effort to set is easy with a bolt and thread. No so a hammered thread.

    The only comparable "feel" is just a little bit tighter than say a pair big dressmaker shears. ,like many of our mums had and we were not allowed to touch

    Grahame

  7. #7
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    Default

    Good advice.
    There is remnants of the blue paint around the hinges still. The biggest complaint with mant of them is the hinge tension- they want to pull the metal between the blades rather than shear it. That being said, all I had on hand as far as sheet metal went was some stainless 1mm sheet. And with a grunt and a fart, one of the better snips managed it.

    As for the file sharpening, I just so happened to give a few old wiltshires a quick bath in some HCL today, so cutting rather nicely.

    Will aim for some pics tomorrow.

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by Commander_Keen View Post
    Good advice.
    There is remnants of the blue paint around the hinges still. The biggest complaint with many of them is the hinge tension- they want to pull the metal between the blades rather than shear it.
    Will aim for some pics tomorrow.
    The cause of that is because they are not as sharp as they should be, so they get twisted and the blades forced apart ! Sometimes bending the hinge.
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  9. #9
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    yep it is the looseness between the individual blades that allows the sheet to slip between the gap and fold.

    The tension bolt on them is not just a nut and bolt.

    I think the term is a fitted bolt- the diameter is closely matched to the pivot hole. I have seen a couple of pair that the kids mangled so much that the fitted bolts stretched due to the abuse. It then meant, because of the fitted stretched bolts, when the nuts were tightened it ran out of thread travel and could not bear against the outside of the blade to snug it up.

    The thread outside of the nut was so mangled and the nut could be be removed to fit a washer under it.


    Both pair had been hammered and mangled.The boss checked and the replacement bolts were not available.

    I had to get a fitter/turner friend to machine some bolts replacements of of a HT black bolt which he reckoned would be 4140.


    On such pairs the inside of the blade pivot areas get full of tiny bits of metal dust and scratch the bejesus out of the touching inner surfaces.
    The surfaces will come up nicely by draw filing - keep them flat. The pairs we fixed ,we kept for the teachers as they cut like silk once they were fettled a bit.


    Good luck . I am very interested to see how you go. Two mates I grew up with ended up as plumbers-when they then made their own drainpipes and swore by Gilbows .

    Grahame

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Grahame Collins View Post
    Good luck . I am very interested to see how you go. Two mates I grew up with ended up as plumbers-when they then made their own drainpipes and swore by Gilbows .
    They used to below to a plumber funnily enough. Ex BHP Newcastle tinsmith. Plumber by trade but mostly found making repairs to roofing and other stuff around the plant, I was told.

    Other restos in the works inlcude
    Record 24" stillson wrench
    Sievert pump up brass blowtorch / soldering iron
    Metabo corded clutch type tek screw driver- has en electrical gremlin on the controls side. Parts for this are NLA, so goint to attempt a fix without letting the smoke out of it.
    1982 vintage Hitachi Koki 5" grinder. It's a ripper, and will join the fleet. #7 IIRC. Probably a dedicated wire cup wheel, as it has no guard!

    IMG_0398.jpg

    IMG_0399.jpg

    IMG_0400.jpg

  11. #11
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by Commander_Keen View Post
    looks like a tinsmith rivet punch at the bottom of pic...the one with the hole in the side

    other two to to right of that maybe pitsburgh joint dollies?

  12. #12
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    If you can not tighten the bolt you may need to remove it or the pin and re-surface the two faces to bring the anvils closer together. Care needed to keep the file flat and do not over remove matetial. This area wears greatly if over tightened or if they become to loose and wear unevenly.

  13. #13
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    Yes, there's a rivet setter there.
    And I did ask a sheetie acquaintance what the dollies might be for, and he mentioned that they are for forming and interlocking a type of joint- so pittsburgh might be the proper name. Cheers

  14. #14
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    I recoed a large pair of snip about 35 years ago.They were in pretty poor condition when I got them. I had to split them and I spent a lot of time lapping the faces to get rid of all the divits out of the face, this was after grinding the top edge as well. Once back together they would cut paper as Grahame said.
    I never did get around to repainting the handles.Still use them regularly.
    The secret to keeping them in good condition is to never, ever, let anyone else use them.

    best of with your resto.

    Peter

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by bollie7 View Post
    The secret to keeping them in good condition is to never, ever, let anyone else use them.
    and never ever cut wire of any type..copper and ally etc included

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