The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Thought i'd try reviving a scabby old gear knob. Spun it on the lathe (pillar drill will work) and started with 120 grit sandpaper, working through finer sandpaper and finishing with wet and dry. Then let it soak in clean oil for a couple of days, dried it off and its looks good, certainly better than a shiny plastic reproduction one. Only time will tell how long it stays looking like that though!

Looking great John, if you get it in to work it will polish up pretty well (here's Billy's one).

Sandy

Does look good, presumably this is an original Bakelite knob?

It is, it was on a tractor that hadn't been used in probably 20 years and sat outside. I wasn't sure how degraded the bakelite was but luckily the outer crust sanded off and there are no cracks in it, and as Sandy says, it should get a polished surface with some use

you are lucky, most of the time the break in 2 pieces.

To be honest i was expecting that to happen. Glad it worked though, it's nice to keep as many original bits as possible. I had to wrap it in a rag and use stilsons to remove it, and even managed to sand the marks out of it