If they still have decent lead screws, and good spurs. Once they get knocked, or worked off, you don't have a lot left to save. E Bay prices would suggest they have value in fair, to average shape.
Plenty of low impact ways to clean off the gunk, many are painless soaks, then spiff them up with a toothbrush. Filing the leads is not real involved, and bazinga, you have usable augers.
If selling I would leave as is and show a good picture of the lead screw and spurs. I would sell as a lot to make life easy. On the other hand you can pic up a brace cheap if you don't have one and get a file. Clean them up, build a rack and sharpen as you use them. I just bought a brace and a bit but shied away from most of the used bits because I couldn't see the lead screw or spurs very well.
That is a pretty nice looking set there I think I will PM you my email if you are thinking of selling so you can shoot some pictures to me.
Omg! Absolutely cleanable, usable! Surprising how many people are looking for what you have. Even here on LJ I've seen posts looking for auger bits. From what I see you have several types, let alone sizes. That taper reamer is quite unusual…
Regards, The Kentucky Toolsmith!
TherealsteveN, controlfreak, and KYtoolsmith, Thank you for your comments and advice. I did start to sot through and begin sizing and looking for bent, or spurless, or damaged. I guess I need to build a rack! Thank you all.
Just a tip (no pun). I have used cotton sash cord and valve grinding paste to clean and polish the augers. Apply paste to the sash cord and run it like shoe polishing on the bodies. Polishes 'em up really well.
Thank you Bill. That sounds like a good tip, guess I'll be going to the store today. I was explaining to my wife about steel wool and the single aught, double aught, triple aught, etc. grading. So now I will have to explain diameters and length of rope. So, in that vein, do I need a skein or a hank or a spool and a number 6 or 8 diameter? Just joshin'. I do appreciate the help.
A while back I got a bunch of old augers off eBay similar to your bunch. I soaked them in citric acid to neutralize the rust, then chucked a wire wheel in my drill press to clean the black gunk (converted rust) off.
I'd probably go through and organize by size and reject the ones that aren't savable (broken snail, bent, etc). Then start restoring by derusting/polishing and sharpening.
I recently got a bucket full of augers that all looked rusty. Soaked them in Evaporust and they all cleaned up nicely. Two out of over 30 were not usable. The spurs were still pretty sharp on most.
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