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Having heard that I enjoy restoring old tools, a friend of mine, Matt, recently gave me an old and very tired screwdriver that he'd acquired. The challenge was to restore the tool while not completely destroying the history of its use/abuse.
This turned out to be in a much worse state than I'd realised. In particular, the brass ferrule and the wooden stub that the ferrule enclosed were both damaged and the screwdriver blade was badly pitted and rusted.
It looked as if the ferrule and wooden stub had been badly crushed, so that the ferrule had an oval cross-section and the stub had fractured vertically and lost its structural integrity. The stub would have to be replaced.
I was able to push a screwdriver under the base of the ferrule and lift it by a millimetre or so. I could then get a hacksaw in between the base of the ferrule and the top of the handle and saw through the stub until I reached the screwdriver blade. I could then push the stub remnants down to fill the gap, saw again, repeating until the stub was gone. The ferrule could then be squeezed a little bit more oval and eased over the screwdriver blade. After pulling out the blade, not easy because of the corrosion, I had the following components:
The stub had been about 11mm in diameter and fortunately I had some 12mm oak doweling left over from a previous project. First the hole needed to be filled with a cut-down beech dowel after which I drilled out a 12mm hole about 25mm deep and glued in the oak dowel which was then thinned to 11mm.
The ferrule was then pushed onto a slightly-tapered piece of 12mm oak dowel (think jeweller's ring mandrel) and beaten into shape using one of my favourite hammers, a Thor copper/hide hammer). It was then pushed over the new stub, which was then cut to size.
The blade was cleaned of rust using wire wool but the pitting was left as it was. It is part of its history and besides, any pitting removal would have removed the maker's name and logo.
I'm a bit confused by the greyhound logo which appears to have been used by Marsden Brothers & Co of Sheffield. In 1895, John Wilson bought Marsden Brothers so perhaps they carried on using the logo on part of their range.
I used a screwdriver sharpener (shown in the third image) to put a decent end on the blade. Some of the pitting still shows through but this doesn't affect the tip.
Finally, the finished screwdriver. The handle was lightly sanded with 400-grit sandpaper, stained and finished with two coats of Osmo Polyx Oil. It should be good for another 100 years. It still carries the marks of its age and although I had to polish out some damage to the brass ferrule, that will soften to a more dull patination.
October 2022
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