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A Wade and Butcher Challenge
This little project started off as just a desire to restore some nice horn scales on an old razor. I'm sorry, I didn't take any before pictures because I really had no intentions of posting it here. Live and learn, next time I'll have before pictures, no matter what. This post is more about the challenge rather than the finishe product. I'm pretty new to the restoring process and this was a learning experience.
The scales were just old and drab and dried out. Really dried out. The blade had a lot of tarnish but no chips. The first thing I found was the pins were very large. Not the usual thin 1/16 inch or so but thick nickel silver. Just a bit less than 1/8 of an inch actually. I don't know if this is commone for the very old razors or not but it made unpinning it interesting. With the help of a small drill and a dremel diamond burr and a lot of patience I was able to unpin it in about an hour. Then carefully and I do mean carefully separate it. That was the easy part.
When I removed the tarnish I found some pitting but the real problem was very deep scratches and scoring in the blade. It looked like someone took a chisel to the blade at some point. I sanded and sanded and sanded and actually removed a great deal of the scoring but it finally got to where I thought discretion might be the better part of valor and I stopped for fear of ruining the integrity of the blade. In the pictures you can still clearly see some of the scratches down near the edge.
The scales came out very well. I followed the recommendations of people that were kind enough to offer advice and after a thorough soaking in neatsfoot oil and a light sanding with fine grit wet to dry 400, 600. 1000 grit. A good buffing with jeweler's rouge and three coats of carnuba wax.
Now repinning was an adventure. I managed to pin the back of the scales with 1/16 brass rod but I think I was lucky rather than good. The pivot pin holes were just to big for that 1/16 rod and I knew if I did manage to pin it, I'd probably never get it tight. I had no trouble finding a larger brass rod that fit but now finding washers to fit over the rod was another problem. After a long hot morning driving to every nut and bolt room within thirty miles I found some washers. You'll see in the pictures they're large washers but for now I'm going to keep them. I thought the actual peens came out nicely and the blade is good and tight and I did rejuvenate those scales.
Now honing the beast. that was a challenge. There is also just the sightest warp in that blade. and it took every bit of creative honing energy I could muster. I'm by no means a honing maestro but over the past twenty years I've always been able to put an edge on my razors. I tried tape and more tape and no tape and finally using no table and a very creative arcing motion across the stones along with just the slightest rocking motion as I moved across the stones I manges to get it done. Yes I've even shaved with it.
All in all I learned a lot from this. Sometimes you just run into more than you bargained for and you have to adjust.
