Old razor revival questions

Hi Guys, my name is James and i just wanted to ask a question or two about reviving an old razor.

Firstly just to explain a little bit about my self and my straight razor shaving abilitys, basically i am a total newbie, just started straight razor shaving, just started learning to strop (By the way thanks to everyone involved with this site it is really informative) and decided well i really want to learn how to hone as well, so why not start buying old razors and have a crack at it.

I am reading information on this site at a furious rate, so im hoping i can bring this razor i bought back to a usable state from the information i can pick up from reading this site, and well i figured if i have this thread going anything i am still unsure about i can just ask.

the Razor is a bengall, please see photos below

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I Bought a norton waterstone three piece set from SRD, which consists of a 220/1000, 4000/8000 and a flattening stone.

The first thing i was planning on doing was cleaning up the blade, my plan was to use a slightly abrasive type polish with a wet rag and use a bit of elbow grease to carefully clean up the razor.

Sounds like you are on the right track,, If you start a restore with the least abrasive method, it will give you a good wroking knowledge of the way a razor comes together...

You can always add, sandpaper if needed, there is a sticky at the top of the "Workshop" sub forum that has a ton of info on restoring Vintage razors, I would suggest looking through it first to get some ideas...

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...wers-here.html


One of my first personal restores was on a Bengall, still in my collection, and still shaves like a dream, good luck and take your time...

In the old Retsore Chat we had a saying "Rush a restore, Wreck a razor"

hunty,

The Bengall's are fine shavers :)

Looking at your photographs, it would seem that a small polish with something like MAAS and a hone and the razor would be good to go :)

Good luck !

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

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Originally Posted by hunty

The first thing i was planning on doing was cleaning up the blade, my plan was to use a slightly abrasive type polish with a wet rag and use a bit of elbow grease to carefully clean up the razor.

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Another option is a 3M scotch brite type kitchen scouring pad. That was where I started on my Bengall.
Just cleans the surface and won't harm the blade. :)

Ok thanks guys, I wasnt planning to fully break it down or anything, looking at it i dont think there is any pitting anywhere on it, my thoughts were to give it a clean up and then evaluate it from there.

I was planning on using this stuff i have used before at work before called "Astonish" (at least i think that is what its called).It comes in a white tub and has the union jack on it.Magic stuff for cleaning things up.Failing that i might try some of the kitchen type things recommended.

actually it may be this stuff in older packaging.


Attachment 113197

G'Day James and welcome to SRP.

I've used similar products with 0000 steel wool with reasonable effect, too.

I'd probably be inclined to get the blade honed professionally in the first instance to know how a shave ready blade should feel.

Let us know how you go.

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Originally Posted by Havachat45

G'Day James and welcome to SRP.

I've used similar products with 0000 steel wool with reasonable effect, too.

I'd probably be inclined to get the blade honed professionally in the first instance to know how a shave ready blade should feel.

Let us know how you go.

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hi Havachat,
Im currently shaving with a boker from SRD which was professionally honed.

well some progress made, not entirely sure if it is foward progress though.Spent quite a few hours on this today as i had a roster day off.started last night with the scotch bright type kitchen scrubber, moved on to the astonish(it became clear that these were not going to do the job) so today moved on to wet and dry sand paper, 320, 400, 600, 800. 1000, 1200.
Things that could have been done better
1-The scales could have been removed as there is asection near the pivot which is near impossible to clean up.
2-I think i could have gone lower in grit and been more aggressive, as there are small pitting type marks that i couldn't get out, the reason i didn't is that i had fears of wrecking the edge in some way, i thought i can take metal away, but i can put it back.
3-i could have gone higher in grit, but i guess since there are still marks on the blade was there any point?

What Now?maybe those of you with some experience can give me pointers?the photos seem to look worse to me than what it looks in person.Since the object was and is learning to hone, id rather not try to get too carried away and end up damaging it(if i haven't all ready), and leave it as it is and have a go at honing.Not sure, any one have any advice?

BTW Drove my wife mad today on this thing, she told me that she cant understand how some one can spend so many hours sharpening a knife.I thought about mentioning that its not actually a knife and that i wasnt actually sharpening it......but i stopped myself ;).

anyway some pics

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This is Restoration... See it is pretty easy to do the "Oh just wipe it with a rag and polish dance" right until you start and find that under there is where the work begins :rofl2: First thing is to "Tune up the razor" hehehe since it is a Hollow grind hold it near your ear and use your thumb to pluck the edge, that singing sound is what you always want to hear.. Try it near the toe in the middle and at the heel, remember it...
Go back to the 320 grit and settle in and start sanding, I used to start with each grit dry, then at the 400 grit level I would start dry, then spray WD-40 on the razor and keep sanding, it helped to create almost a slurry and that got me better finishes with hand sanding..

Stay on the 320 until one of two things happens,,,

1. You get rid of all the crap and get the look you want
2. You sand for hours and "tune" the razor and notice that the song went flat, that means yer done, you have reached the maximum you can take that edge down to...

Progress up through the grits and polish out, switch to a compound like MAAS, Flitz, Semichrome, Blue Magic etc :etc:

That should get you to where you need to be and the razor is ready for the hones


ps: There are more tips & tricks along with all this info I just typed in that link I gave you above

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This is Restoration... See it is pretty easy to do the "Oh just wipe it with a rag and polish dance" right until you start and find that under there is where the work begins

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Yup, i felt like lightning mcqueen getting schooled by doc hudson on the dirt track when i realized that under the crud was where the actual work started.

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First thing is to "Tune up the razor" hehehe since it is a Hollow grind hold it near your ear and use your thumb to pluck the edge, that singing sound is what you always want to hear.. Try it near the toe in the middle and at the heel, remember it...

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Thanks heaps, this is the part of the puzzle i really needed, wow ive just been doing this it sounds great.(my wife is really looking at me strangely now :D)

Well gentlemen, I have made a second attempt with this razor.It was back to the 320 grit in emery tape, then wet and dry up the grades. I would have to say its far from perfect, but when i look at it to my eye it looks good and id be more than happy to shave with it (i could be biased after the hours of sanding of course).

Thank you all for the help and for pointing me toward the light, and i must say that tuning this razor was most enjoyable, and i was most surprised that i actually found the hours of hand sanding very therapeutic.

Next part of the process that will be required is a hone.

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And much to my wifes dismay, i may have found two more old razors in need of similar treatment.:dropjaw:

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Originally Posted by hunty

And much to my wifes dismay, i may have found two more old razors in need of similar treatment.:dropjaw:

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The Bengali looks like a great find! It sounds like you are picking up speed. Welcome to the club!

I highly recommend that you make yourself a magnetic razor holding jig. It will do 3 things. 1. Stop you from slicing of a finger tip. 2. Stop you from dropping the razor and breaking it. 3. Stop you from snapping off often surprisingly brittle scales.

The jig will be particularly helpful when you use WD40 as per gssixgun's excellent recommendation. It is a great addition to the sanding process, but man does the razor gets slick.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...razor-jig.html

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Originally Posted by hunty

And much to my wifes dismay, i may have found two more old razors in need of similar treatment.:dropjaw:

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And, in addition, you will find that the world is full of little old razors that need some TLC.

That looks brilliant, thank you very much.

Well a sharpened my razor tonight and had a shave with it and OMG:dropjaw: it was such a smooth shave, man i just cant figure out if it was that a carbon steel blade has a different feeling to a stainless, or if ive just hit a large jump in my shaving technique or if its just that ive put so many hours into this razor that i could be hacking half my face off with a rusty chisel and my brain would still be telling me it was the best damn shave of my life :) , but damn it was a really good shave.
One thing ive started to notice is how relaxing shaving is with a straight, its almost like a form of meditation, just awesome.

So, the sharpening.The weapons for the job were a norton 220/1000 combination and a 4000/8000 combination water stones, with a norton flattening stone to flatten the water
stones.Last night i flattened the water stones, i gave them three grid patterns with a wood working pencil for each grit and took all the sharp edges off the corners.

After a very close inspection of the blade, i decided i would start on the 1000 and set a bevel.this took quite alot of work, i kept going until i could shave hair off my arm, one thing that i found interesting was that i could remove hair with the heel and tip edge before i could with the center of the blade(im not sure if this was a deficiency in my technique or what) but i took it slow, concentrated on my technique and in addition to arm shaving i inspected the bevel on each side of the blade regularly.

One thing i didnt do was tape the spine, and as a result ended up with honing wear on it, doesnt particularly bother me with this razor as its far from perfect, but i think if it was a really nice razor i would not be happy with that type of wear.

When i could shave arm hair, i went to the 4000/8000 and followed a pyramid routine off this site, 25/25, 20/20, 15/15, 10/10, 5/5, 3/3, 1/3, 1/5, and then i went to the leather strop and gave it alot of stropping.

At the end of this, i tried the razor on my arm and it was peeling off arm hair as smooth as, so i figured may as well try it out with a shave.

One thing i think i really benifited from was buying a professionally honed razor from the start, as it seemed much easier to judge the blade.

Thanks straight razor place and straight razor ppl :rock: i could not have achieved this without you.

Thanks for posting the pics hunty, you've given me more motivation to try my hand at restoration =] I'm also a newb only shaved with a shavette so far waiting on my first real razor to arrive in the mail but I'm looking for fixxeruppers on ebay to practise honing