Vintage tools: Peugeot Frere 314 hand grinder

As mentioned in a previous post, I recently received an old hand grinder made by Peugeot Freres. Before starting with the restoration of this nice gift I wanted to know as much as possible about that grinder. After some research I found it in the catalog No 751 from Peugeot Freres.

Peugeot Freres, catalog No 751

The grinder appears at page 50 of the catalog.

Page 50 of the catalog.

The model I received is a model 314 "lion", described as ultra-robust, with an oil sump allowing for constant lubrication of the gears. The gear multiplication ratio is 1 to 10 and the wheel is made of superior vitrified corundum (that everybody know is a crystalline form of aluminium oxide of course) which is the second hardest mineral after diamonds (thank you Wikipedia).

The No 314 "Lion" grinder.

From the catalog I can trace the manufacturing of that tool back to 1951.

Now that I am a bit more familiar with the tools and that I know what is corundum I can start with the restoration of this little piece of history.

First thing was to give a good green slime bath to all the hardware like screws, handle, bolts etc. But before doing this, and based on my previous experience with the green slime, I need to first wear this:

Trying to avoid getting my hands colored in green for a week.

I put all the hardware in a plastic box and filled with the green slime.

Hardware bathing for 20 minutes or so.

After around 20 minutes these were ready to be brushed, rinsed with water and oiled a bit so not to rust again.

Hardware cleaned and oiled.

Next step was to do the same with the grinder body. The internal gears are in perfect shape and thanks to the oil that was applied to the interior part there is no any trace of rust so no need to bath everything, just the external part of the body needs to be cleaned a bit what took me multiple coats of green slime applied with a brush and a final brushing and rinsing.

Grinder body, cleaned from any rust.

When clean I was able to read the model number 314 at the bottom of the body.
I decided not to repaint the body  as I want to keep the original paint (well what is left of the original paint) and patina.

The wheel is in very good condition and barely shows any usage.

The grinder wheel, a bit dirty but in good condition.

I will keep it for now and will see if it is of any good usage, if not I will replace it with a brand new one.

Time now to get all pieces back together and look at the final result.

All pieces back together.

The sharpening guide in front of the wheel show 2 gutters used to sharpened drill bits at different angles using the side of the wheel.

The grinder set on a temporary place.

I will need to find a permanent place where to set this little gem and cannot wait to try it on some plane iron or chisel.