so what i did to restore this die set is i wire brushed off all the rust and chips inside the dies.
before
then also used a hand planer to take off a lot of the oil that soaked into the wood
after
this was patented in 1912 so its pretty damn old
Very nice.
My college has a ton of tools, taps, dies, compressed gas bottles, etc. All engraved or stamped with both US Navy, US Army, and US Army Air Forces, meaning they date to at least WWII. Always neat to find time capsules like that.
Tools last when you care for them.