Thread: First Couple of Restores and What I Learned

So I finally started in one some of the razors I've been collecting, thanks to my wife, who let me order all the supplies as an early Christmas present!

First up is a Henckels Graef and Schmidt near-wedge I got a couple of years ago, and hand-sanded:
http://i767.photobucket.com/albums/x...s/3108090d.jpg
I didn't like the cheap plastic scales I had put it into, so I made some from rosewood I got from a friend who is a custom woodworker. He is giving me all of his cut-offs, lots of beautiful spalted and burled stuff, too (which my son's knife-making mentor is stabilizing for us), so I foresee lots of exotic wood scales on my future projects!

Scales were cut on a band-saw, rough-shaped very carefully on various knife-making belts on my son's grinders, then hand-sanded at 400/600/800/1000/1500/2000 on wet-dry automotive paper. A final buffing on white compound on a Baldor 1/2 hp 1800rpm buffer on a 6" concentric-sewn cotton wheel brought out lots of shine (with maybe a few flecks of compound left behind in the grain), so I left them as is, with no finish.

Blade: I remember painstakingly hand-sanding this up through the grits previously, with some stubborn spots left for character. A final buff on white compound, and a vigorous session with Mother's made it sparkle. I wasn't shooting for full mirror, and don't mind the scratches too much. Though it was tricky to hone, it took a stunning edge, and was a great shaver before, so I look forward to getting it ready for this evening's shave!

The spacer was just a piece of unused knife-handle blank labeled as "Lauca" (never heard of it). I know it's too thick, and spacers are frowned upon, but honestly, after looking through the archives here and seeing spacers on the early pieces of some of SRP's masters, I don't feel too bad about it. I'll learn to do real wedges on one of the ones I'm currently working on. (And yeah, one wrong move on the grinder gave me that divot on the rear scale.) A little uneven in thickness, too, I know.

Pinning: I took the advice of Pixelfixed and Shaptonn on here and annealed my pin ends. That, cutting off to within 1/16", and tapping out one side in a knife-maker's vice helped, I think. I have developed a rhythmic, rapid, telegraph-key sort of shallow "clackita-clackita" peening style which seemed to work very well (and is also strangely enjoyable). Brass inside thrust washers, brass washers, and NiAg pins. A follow-up buff helped them pop, and covered my mistakes.

Though it all came together a tiny bit cockeyed, I kept adjusting slightly and compensating, and it closes tight and reasonably well-centered.

2nd one is a Joseph Elliott "Celebrated Universally Approved Best Silver Steel" with thumb-notch. It was pretty tarnished, with lots of edge chips and devils-spit when I got it. Mother's didn't really help a whole lot, and I also didn't really want to fool with those ugly delaminated horn scales at the time. BEFORE:

After-The blade: So after practically memorizing Brad Maggard's restoration videos, I took it up through the wheels: all 6x1/2" concentric-sewn cotton on the Baldor: 180/240/400/600 Fomax greaseless compounds. Even though I thought I was being VERY careful and judicious, the more I tried to buff out the devils-spit, the ugly pitting underneath just seemed too deep, and by the time I got to 600, I had rounded off every crisp edge, and nearly lost my blade engraving. I just finished up with white compound and Mother's.



Scales: Again with the rosewood and Lauca spacer, same regimen as above. Though they're dark and have a few imperfections, the figure is really beautiful IMO.

Pins: Double-pinned spacer, double-stacked brass and NiAg, with brass inside bearing washers inside on the pivot end, again buffed to a high shine. Again, it came together a little off-kilter, but leaving that spacer unglued and constantly adjusting did help a lot. It still closes way off-center, though. I was pretty pleased with my pinning here (except for the off-center part).

Honing: Because I got careless and dropped the blade during the resto (idiot!), I had to do my first serious bread-knifing/chip correction. After triple-taping that big wedge spine I spent what seemed like forever on the 325 and Norton 1k trying to set a bevel. That smiling, assymetrical profile, an apparent blade warp (and maybe my over-zealousness on the compounds, though I tried to avoid the spine, I really did!) really forced me to do a lot of acrobatics here, doing back-and-forths, circles, and lots of rolling/rocking, heel-forward x-strokes. It took me a couple of sessions, and some pyramiding up the Norton 4k, but I finally got a bevel set. I stripped down to one layer of fresh tape, and did a 4/8k pyramid, then finished on my C12k. Stropped on CrOx 15 laps, then about 70 on latigo. Though it shaved reasonably well, that heel and toe still need work, and there's still just a hint of chip near the toe. Rome wasn't built in a day...

Some general tips I learned:
*I'm no photographer (obviously!)
*All the power-tools, grinding and buffing machines I used in my son's knife-making workshop helped immensely, though it is much easier to get in trouble or go too far with power tools!
*I am rethinking the greaseless approach with a few nice Sheffields I am currently working on. 1 W&B in particular looks awesome after just some very careful high-grit hand-sanding, buffing with white compound, and Mother's, the faint devil's spit be damned! Brad Maggard I ain't!
*Double-sided tape is your friend.
*Glenn's idea of making a wooden mockup tang and testing fit with hex nuts/bolts really helped loads!
*I am pretty proud of myself for NOT splitting that rosewood!
*TAKE YOUR TIME! When I tried to rush a step is when I screwed up, and these set-backs took me twice as long to fix in the long run.
*This is a very addicting hobby on a miserable cold, rainy day when it's too cold to fish. I put about 20 blades on my watch-list just last night!

Thanks to all who contribute so much info on this awesome forum! I read and reread your posts, and am learning a lot. I welcome all criticism so that my upcoming projects won't look like a junior high shop class project. Thnks for any feedback! Aaron/SHD

You have done some very nice work on those and they look good, congrats.

Bob

Nice first restores! I wish my first ones had turned out that good.

You are correct, Rome wasn't built in a day.......This hobby takes a lot of thinking things out, experimentation and patience. You probably have already figured out that with each restore you learn something new, that is what makes it so interesting and fun. I've been at this for over 5 years and learn something new with each one. One thing I learned right away......this stuff is addicting!

Nice job on the restores!

Wedges help a LOT but they are a pain to get right.
Take your time and test fit 1,000 times if necessary.
Thinning the scales down and making sure they are close to even is hard to do also, but helps with the aestices.

All in all VERY GOOD first restores!

Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

I welcome all criticism so that my upcoming projects won't look like a junior high shop class project. Thnks for any feedback! Aaron/SHD

'Dad'! I'm also one who welcomes 'Corrective Criticism' however you won't get any from me on this project!!

I wish that there was a 'pat on the back' icon as I'd give you many!

Nothing wrong with that work Bubba!

Thanks for all the positive feedback, fellas. I did shave with the this evening, and both need more tweaking edge-wise. Sometimes I think I should just get more straight-edge blades, but I just love those curves!

All looks good,next time around, make a wedge,not a spacer,a tad thinner on the scales and more sanding on the edge contours.
Not dissen at all, JMO

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

All looks good,next time around, make a wedge,not a spacer,a tad thinner on the scales and more sanding on the edge contours.
Not dissen at all, JMO

I agree although I detest the look of the pencil thin wedge I do think even a slight wedge is what i prefer..

Originally Posted by Heespharm

I agree although I detest the look of the pencil thin wedge I do think even a slight wedge is what i prefer..

+1
BTW good job

Great work!
You are well on your way to do more!!!

Ray