Thread: Rust

Hello again!

I just bought a brand new Ralf Aust 7/8 this last couple of months and it is starting to dull a little bit and could use a sharpening. When I was inspecting my blade I noticed that I have rust now on the tang of my blade and what looks like it might be under my horn scales! Needless to say I am not very happy with self and letting that Happen. I try to keep the water just on the blade when shaving but obviously that isn't Happening. So how do I fix the problem? Can I fix it myself? Is it easy to do? When I send my aust out to get honed will the person Clean that rust up for me or do I have to specifically ask for them to do that? How much typically extra would it cost. Thanks guys in advance for all your answers!

Greg

The best way that I have learned to deal with small amount of corrosion is a toothbrush and metal polish. It makes short work of the rust and doesn't hurt anything. After you shave make sure you completely dry the blade, bathroom tissue is a good finishing dryer in my experience. Be careful you are not getting too much water on the handle while shaving, the handle can hold water. If I do get the handle wet on my razors, I dry them best I can and leave them open to fully dry before putting them back on their rack.
I just got my first Ralf Aust, they are great razors so enjoy yourself

Pics would help to better advise you.

With a single edge razorblade cut/scrape off the rust from the tang then buff with 0000 steel wool and couple drops of oil or WD40. If needed sand lightly with 1k, Wet & Dry and polish with a good metal polish, Maas, Flitz, Mothers, or Semi Chrome.

For the scales, take a paper towel wrap around a coffee stir stick and put a dap of metal polish, or wrap with steel wool then polish between the scales with metal polish.

Dry your razor well with a micro fiber and leave open, with the blade fully out of the scales to dry, after shaving.

Greg:
This is a common problem until we learn to keep our razors dry, or if we get them wet, to really dry them out before storing them.

A fiberglass pen, available from hobby suppliers, can usually be used to get around the tang pretty well but the only way to get corrosion from under the scales is to un-pin the razor, clean it out then re-pin the scales.
It's not unusual for there to be corrosion and gunk in and around the pin on vintage razors, so as long as you stop the cause of yours and clean up what you can, I probably would not take the scales off until some later date.

If you need your razor honed I would be happy to help out with that, no charge just pay for shipping and I would be happy to do some light clean up on it also.

FrankC

Pipe cleaners can be handy for applying polish or drying between the scales. Dental floss can be useful for cleaning out rust and other crud from around the pivot pin.

Great tips above, all of which will work. I tend to get my razors and scales quite wet during a shave. I always dry with TP as suggested, and leave them open on a dry facecloth for a while before rewiping, quick stropping, and then a film of nevrdull polish. Nevrdull also removes light tarnish and rust to add to the above suggestions. Tuff Glide is considered the best protection gents are using however. I don't have any yet, but will probably buy some when I see it at the store.
Regards.

Pipe cleaners have worked well for me.

Meguiars makes a heavy and med cut polish. It has worked very well. I found it on Amazon.

I have only used it on 1 razor. I did use it on my Sig, where I let a little rust form around the base of front sight. It is with me all the time and I got lazy with cleaning.