Thread: W&B rescue from ebay

HELP!!! me the rust pits are deep!

I need some advice on deep rust. I have never worked on a razor rusted this deep.

I saw a Barber's lot up on ebay. It had a couple Wade and Butchers, four hones and a strop. It included several other items I'll never use including manual hair clippers, some towels, tapers, etc.

When I looked at the razors they were really rusty, but one of them looked like it could be a Barbers Use. I got the lot on Tuesday and it was. I really made out. The razors are definitely restorable, and the strop was a Sunbury with an amazing finish!

The first four pics are before cleanup. The last four are after the first pass of sanding. This was the worst of it. There was a small spot on the tip of the other W&B. I highlighted on the tip of the barbers use where the rust pitted pretty deep. Too much to reasonably sand out.

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What steps do I take to treat or remove as much rust as I can? I know I can keep the blade cleaned and oiled once I'm done to reduce the likelihood of rust taking hold again, but I've never worked on a blade pitted this deeply before.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Did you think to set a bevel first & see how the edge is ?
It's a lot of work unless you don't mind if it's just a display piece.

You can only take off so much metal even with wedges & then a regrind is probably the best option.

On razors that look like they came off the titanic you often have to accept some pitting.

Yea I have had a few like that, and my suggestion is to remove what you can and leave the rest. Everything you pointed out is not on the edge, so it's purely cosmetic. Make sure the edge is good, and shave away!

Yes, sometimes you just have to accept that some pitting will remain. You could try some OOOO steel wool and a metal polish to get in the pits and/or a fiberglass prep pen might work too.

Trying to set an initial bevel is also a good idea as I see what looks like some minor chips in the edge and possibly the rust is in there too. You may have to remove some metal to get at good steel for the bevel. Setting the bevel may involve re contouring the heel a bit too from the looks of it.

Take your time, it looks like it will be a good shaver when done and worth the effort.

Bob

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Did you think to set a bevel first & see how the edge is ?
It's a lot of work unless you don't mind if it's just a display piece.

You can only take off so much metal even with wedges & then a regrind is probably the best option.

On razors that look like they came off the titanic you often have to accept some pitting.

I did check and they are both true. They will be able to hone up and shave fine.

Originally Posted by prodigy

Yea I have had a few like that, and my suggestion is to remove what you can and leave the rest. Everything you pointed out is not on the edge, so it's purely cosmetic. Make sure the edge is good, and shave away!

My concern was this. I didn't want to go through the trouble of a full restore only to see one of the pits blooming red sometime later.

I know with deep pits I will need to make sure that it stays clean, dry and oily. I want to make as sure as possible that I did everything I could up front to make sure the deep rust was not active.

I figure since these are the classic Wade and Butchers, I could soak them in vinegar if needed. The darkening of the blade would look fine on these. I just don't want to lose the tang stamps by the blade getting so dark you can barely see them.

Originally Posted by BobH

Yes, sometimes you just have to accept that some pitting will remain. You could try some OOOO steel wool and a metal polish to get in the pits and/or a fiberglass prep pen might work too.

Trying to set an initial bevel is also a good idea as I see what looks like some minor chips in the edge and possibly the rust is in there too. You may have to remove some metal to get at good steel for the bevel. Setting the bevel may involve re contouring the heel a bit too from the looks of it.

Take your time, it looks like it will be a good shaver when done and worth the effort.

Bob

As I mentioned above the bevel should set fine. I looked under the scope after the first sanding. There are a few chips along the edge, but it looks like no rust pits along the edge of either blade. I took a gamble knowing up front they were rusty, but they will clean up and be fine shavers.

Originally Posted by KindestCutOfAll

As I mentioned above the bevel should set fine. I looked under the scope after the first sanding. There are a few chips along the edge, but it looks like no rust pits along the edge of either blade. I took a gamble knowing up front they were rusty, but they will clean up and be fine shavers.

The trouble is you just don't know till you do the job. I reground my first W&B restore & took it from 7/8 to 6/8. It still took me several honings before the edge stopped crumbling. The rust on it was not so bad either. It just depends on how deep it burrows.

looking at the shoulder of the barber use and it looks like it has already seen some regrinding, so another won't hurt. If you use steel wool polish and a lot of elbow grease you can get all the rust out of the pits and leave the pits. That can be both a long term and short term solution. they can be hand sanded back to an even polished surface, but that is a lot of work. You need to weigh how much you want a shiny razor compared to how much time or money you would like to put into it. If you go by hand you can always go back to it later. As in do some work and then shave with it for a while and then the next time it needs to be rehoned do a little more.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

The trouble is you just don't know till you do the job. I reground my first W&B restore & took it from 7/8 to 6/8. It still took me several honings before the edge stopped crumbling. The rust on it was not so bad either. It just depends on how deep it burrows.

So true about a bit of rust that seemed just fine on inspection and crumbling edges . That is from bitter experience too.

Bob

Originally Posted by onimaru55

The trouble is you just don't know till you do the job. I reground my first W&B restore & took it from 7/8 to 6/8. It still took me several honings before the edge stopped crumbling. The rust on it was not so bad either. It just depends on how deep it burrows.

Ok, got it. I thought you were talking about warp. I looked at the edge again and there is not a lot of discoloring. You are right though I need to do some bevel setting to confirm. I can already see it's going to take a bit just to remove the chips i can see.

Thanks for pointing that out.

Originally Posted by RezDog

looking at the shoulder of the barber use and it looks like it has already seen some regrinding, so another won't hurt. If you use steel wool polish and a lot of elbow grease you can get all the rust out of the pits and leave the pits. That can be both a long term and short term solution. they can be hand sanded back to an even polished surface, but that is a lot of work. You need to weigh how much you want a shiny razor compared to how much time or money you would like to put into it. If you go by hand you can always go back to it later. As in do some work and then shave with it for a while and then the next time it needs to be rehoned do a little more.

I've got another Barbers Use and a few other heavy Wade and Butchers with similar shoulders. Cosmetically I'm not worried about it looking minty. I think the big heavy W&Bs look best when they show a bit of age any way.

Hopefully I won't need a regrind, but there is plenty there. Certainly a Barbers Use would warrant it if needed.

sometimes you just got to call it
this was some 20 plus hours of hand sanding when I called it, still some pitting but that is it's life character to remind me where it was before I got it