Well one has to ask,
How do you clean them up so well .......... I think we deserve more 
OK then.
The blades are quite easy. Wet-and-dry paper wrapped around a stick gets the rust off and gives a nice smooth finish on the top of the blade, the underside has to be kept very flat, or the chisel will never sharpen properly. So I draw-file it and then finish on a bench stone. I wet grind the main bevel, hone the secondary bevel on an oil stone, and then strop on leather until it's sharp enough to cleanly shave the hairs on my forearm. (Shaving forearm hair seems to be some kind of universal standard measure of sharpness for edged tools....)
The handles can take a little longer. Scrape the worst of the old paint, filler and general cack off with the back edge of a hacksaw blade. Then scrub the whole of the handle with wire wool to a nice, even, matt finish. Polish with Brasso, then buff hard with a soft, dry cloth. I'm not fanatical about finish, these are working tools after all, but I think it's worth putting a bit of time and effort into getting them looking decent.
.......So have you a collection of planes as well?
Used to have a rather nice collection of Beech wood planes, varying in size from a monster 24" jointer to tiny block planes. Again all from boot sales or junk shops, all nicely restored, and with irons sharp enough to shave with.
As the worlds least enthusiastic woodworker, even I have to admit that a properly tuned, wooden bodied plane is a delight to use, compared to a modern metal one.
I leant the whole lot to a friend to use as props for a photographic project. They were in the back of his car when it got stolen, crashed and set on fire.
He was pretty miffed about losing his Subaru that way. I was absolutely gutted about losing those planes.
one_rod.
