Thread: My humble start to restorations.

Well after some time reading on here and some amazing articles and video's I decided to move into SR restoration from DE's. I have no woodworking or metal working experience prior to starting. I started out with just restoring blades. that led to unpinning and repinning scales. then came acrylic scales and then into wood. It has been a good journey so far but I have so much to learn. I will post the restores I have done from oldest to newest. Please do keep in mind that I really had no idea what I was doing. I just read lots and watched many video's and sort of worked at it from them. Please be gentle but honest!!

My first restore was an old Oxford Germania cutlery Comp. That had a crack at the shoulder and chip at the toe and TONS of rust. It offered me TONS to start learn with!! Started by doing a progressive sanding from 220 up to 3000g and then a polish with Flitz. I ground down the heel and toe (keepin cool). I had at first kept the scales on it. I however wanted to learn more so unpinned and made my first set of scales (this came much later after I had done a couple other blade restores). The blade turned out great but my first set of scales and pin's left much to be desired. As it was my very first blade, pin and scale set I will keep it how it is forever more.

My second restore was a C.W. DHALGREN Frameback. It was a blade only restore and scale polish. The blade was is very rough shape but sanded out well.

good job on the first set...i sanded waaaaaaay too much off and have yet to get a set I really like made. The peening just gets better with patience. Mine came out really well after about three attempts at getting the sizing right, throwing away a quarter of a rod, two hours, and alot of cursing

The blade looks great and you did quite well for your first set of scales. We all started somewhere Your pinning looks pretty good, the critique that I would give is to do a little more sanding on the scales...from the pics it looks like theres some scratches left.

3rd Restore was a A&N C.S.L. It was my first unpinning. It had snapped and warped scales so I used some scales off another razor after redoing the blade.

My 4th restore was a Clements with a massive chip in the blade. This is where the scales came from for my 3rd restore. I ground out the chip and made my second set of scales. I think the blade turned out great but the scales made me realize that working with acrylic isnt my bag!!

Restore #5 was on an ERN Sword and Crown. It has a snapped scale on the back side. I wanted to keep the front scale as it has the sword/crown on it. I got a scale that was a bit bigger but the right shape. Sanded it down to the same size and shape as the other scale and redrilled the pivot hole. As often is the case they did not match up so I chose to draw away from the extra hole with a star shaped pivot peen.

Restore #6 was on a G. Wostenholm Piperazor. It was my first dabble into wood scales. I used Becote hardwood and my first try at a CA finish. thanks to the great how too's it worked like a charm!!

will post the last two in a bit. Thanks much gents for all the help you have unknowingly give to me!!!

Looks like you've been on a restoringspree.
Nice work so far. I like how you handsanded every razor.
I agree that it looks like there are still scratches on the red plastic scales, so watch your progression when you're sanding the scales.
So far so good I would say!