How do I unpolish a wrench

[johnsironsanctuary]

I bought this little Billings on ebay the last week . The pic below is from the auction. When I got it, it was blindingly shiny. The guy had buffed it to a mirror finish.YYUUKK!! It slill has all of the dings and pitts from a hundred years, it just shines like a Chinese Chrome Wrench. Will vinegar dull it? Is there better way?

[rusty]

Well, you could use it for 50 years or so.....

Depends what you want tho. Vinegar will frost it , you may not like what it does, it will dull it, but it will be a kinda whitish frosty look. longer exposure will pit it.  Yoiu could do something like blueing on it to turn it black/blue. (gun stock stuff) There are solutions for antiquing metal that will turn it a brownish color....
 
FWIW, some of these wrenches did in fact come fully polished.....
(I don't nkow if the one you have is supposed to be tho)

You could dip it in brown water color paint and see if you like it, it will wash off if you don't....
You could do like someone did to a Ford wrench I have and spray paint it with alumnium metallic paint so it looks like a circus prop.....
Wipe it with black axle grease....(gloves recommended)

[Branson]

Cold bluing will knock of the shiny.  If it's not enough, hit it again with the cold blue, don't wash it off and let it sit overnight.  Don't use Formula 44/40.  That one will turn it almost instantly black.  Scott wrote something recently -- I think it was about the Marples safety hatchet -- about decently darkening things.

[scottg]

When I want to "instant patina" something, make it look older,  I'll wipe it down with, what else?
 Instant patina!
 Available at any glass shop.
 Or else cold gun blue, I think its the same thing.

   Anyway this will blacken it.
From there, take a cloth and polishing compound (valve grinding or other) and rub off the black until I have some left and some gone, as it would when aged naturally.
 Of course all you really have to do is use it but that takes a long time.
  yours Scott   

[johnsironsanctuary]

Thanks guys, I'll do something tomorrow.

Scott, I'm 67, I only have 25 productive years left!

[Papaw]

How can that be johnsiron? I am 69, and I figure I have about 31 more productive years!

[johnsironsanctuary]

Makes sense Papaw, you are in better shape.

[amertrac]

I am 76 and I look forward to waking up tomorrow     LOL
on the shiny wrenches, I like to have different looking wrenches in my collection if it came shiny leave it be if it came rusty clean enough so it doesn't look so bad if the wrenches all looked the same in a collection the first thing people think is repo.I have a chromed 3in king dick( no smart azz remarks from the peanut gallery) that came in a cloth pouch that you have to wear sunglasses to read the markings but thats the way it came.  jmho bob w,

[johnsironsanctuary]

I agree with Bob on diversity in the collection. A piece that was polished when new and then well kept is thing of beauty. This one had seen the ravages of time and abuse. Someone then tried to polish it and only succeeded in polishing the nuks and pitts. It is kind of a 'lipstick on a pig' thing.
Before I went to bed last night, I washed it in Diluyente de Laca and gave it a coat of blueing. This morning, I saw that about 25% of it still had chrome plating. I buffed off the blueing on the wire wheel and now it looks much more like an old wrench that has had a long and hardworking career. I sure wish these old tools could talk.

[Papaw]

I sure wish these old tools could talk.

They do! They talk to us and we hear in our own way. This forum is where their stories get told, or at least we try to know the stories.

[Varidrivegt14]

i hate when people polish old tools to a brilliant sheen. if its over 100 years old it shouldnt be polished. i bought an old IH wrench on ebay from a guy and when i got it it was highly polish. he even ground the mushroom off the jaws to make them straight. i was going to sent it back but almost cost as much as i got it for. of well chalk it up as a loss

[Varidrivegt14]

My polished "beauty".

[amertrac]

to me it looks from the pics that it came from a present day toy maker  jmho  bob w.

[johnsironsanctuary]

Condolences, VariDrive, I know how you feel.
JIS

[scottg]

i hate when people polish old tools to a brilliant sheen.

Leave it out on the damp grass overnight! or maybe for a couple/three days.
Toning down unplated steel is about the easiest thing in life.
If you really want it old looking leave it in the compost pile for a month.
It'll be as crunchy nasty ooky as you please. 

  Most people only over clean tools that were in sad shape to begin with.
 I see the same complaint on the antiques roadshow almost very week.
"If you hadn't refinished it, it would be worth $125,000. " 
 The dipwicket appraisers are always fantasizing the piece was original mint perfect condition before it was refinished.
 But the sad sack butt ugly condition that person probably found it in, would have fetched nothing at all.
 
  In reality, people seldom "work" on perfect antiques.

 Yours has a bent head. That's why the jaws don't line up anymore. Not from wear, someone tried to use it on something too big for it. Any tool can be abused and adjustable wrenches often are. 
 
Anybody else ever straighten heads so the jaws line up again? I have done many.
It takes a --big -- vise to absorb the shock, and a confident full hammer swing. Because you have to hit them HarD!  And you won't do the big ones.
 But anything under 14" long I have straightened back up when I wanted, so the jaws meet up again.
  yours Scott