1st attempt at a restore - North American Cutlery

Hello,
I posted about this in the Newbie forum, and it was suggested I give the info here. I made an attempt at restoring a a North American Cutlery razor that I bought on ebay for about $15, basically to get some practice before trying to restore a particular razor for my father. I found the whole process to be very fun and interesting, made a few mistakes and hopefully learned from them. I watched Lynn's DVD with the segment on cleaning up razors, and have been going through the info on Bill Ellis' CD as well, though I don't have nearly the tools he does - my hands, a section of rubber tubing, and a dremel are about it.

1. I used a dremel with felt polish pads, with Mother Mag and aluminum polish first (the stuff recommended by everyone - Maas and Flitz, is not available anywhere near me that I can find). That took off the tarnish.
2. Hand sanded with 120 grit to get out the majority of the pits and any rust - about 30 min
3. Dremel with 180 grit fiber pad - 30 min
4. Dremel with 220 grit fiber pad - 30 min
5. Dremel with 320 grit fiber pad - 30 min
6. Hand sanded with 400 grit - 15 min
7. Hand sanded with 600 - 10
8. Hand sanded with 800 - 10
9. Hand sanded with 1000 - 10
10. Dremel with polish again - done.

My times are rough, I worked on it over several nights.

I did not take out the pin, so I'll have to go back at some point to clean up the metal that blocked by the scales. I also used the polish on the scales, cleaned them up nicely though a prior owner had made an unfixable mess around the pins removing them at some point. I had no problem using a dremel on this, didn't cause any damage to the razor. I just kept a close eye on the direction of the spin in relation to the edge, and took frequent breaks to let the heat on the razor dissipate.

If I were to do it over, I would spend more time at 120 grit but with lesser pressure, trying to get out all of the pits yet not leave those few scratches that are so deep they caused me problems the whole time. I am not sure whether I would take the razor out of the scales or not. Having them attached gave me better leverage on the razor, but also I worry about the stress on the pin and whether it will result in the razor wobbling within the scales. Any thoughts about that would be appreciated!

I won the razor on eBay months ago, the pics there and item listing are no longer available. It is a 4/8 North American Cutlery Co. (Beaver City, NB) razor. The attached pics are "after", I was pretty sure I was going to mess up the whole thing terribly when I tried this so I didn't take "before" pics. The razor looked the same, except almost as black as scales and with a reddish discoloration in the hollow on each side.

Any feedback would be great, in terms of tips on how I did this.

Regards,
Rob

Great job!:tu

It's a good idea to take a "before" picture and post it so we can ooh and ahh at the relative improvement.;)

Great job!

Next time, remove the pin. It's easy to remove and re-pin again. Beneath the scales is always some kind of tarnish to be removed.
After the 1k sandpaper, what compounds have you used to polish it?

Nice work!
I prefer not to unpin unless i have to, but everyone's got their own methods. You did a great job getting that to shine!

Nice Job. Seems your equipment served you well.
You're not alone. Not many have the equipment Bill Ellis has :D

Beautiful!!! I wish I could get my blades to look like that!:rock:

Quick question, I am currently trying to restore a blade and it seems like the more I sand and polish, the more I am losing the words on the blade, you know, such as 'Made In Germany', how did you compensate for this?