Thread: Johnson Western Works Sheffield

Originally Posted by BobH

Those black spots look like what Glen calls devils spit. You might want to PM him for advice on their removal.

Bob

Thanks for the reference Bob. Don’t know why I didn’t think of that myself.

It sure looks like it might be Devil’s Spit. The black areas near the spine don’t bother me as much as those by the edge. I have some brass wire wheels for my Dremel, that I can try out on those once I check out the ones near the edge..

I’ll try honing the blade to see if that exposes any damage under the black. The blade is big enough that I can take off a fair amount of steel and still have a usable razor.

Fingers crossed.

Looking at it with a loupe can give u an idea of how deep the devils spit, goes.

Does it show on the opposite side of the blade, in the same areas.?

I saved one that had devils spit. I honed it as far as I could go to reach good steel, but leaving a bit in the bevel.

Any further honing, and its lost its use, because of further corrosion below the bevel.

May not be a beautiful, but it shaves a treat.....for now.





Good luck

I save my expired sonicare toothbrushes for such a thing. It works better on some things than others but I normally use a paste of baking soda and distilled water. Make sure you do it in a place that you don't mind slinging it though because it makes a real mess. I haven't tried it yet but I've been meaning to mix the baking soda with the 3M and see how that works.

Couldn’t find the 3M easily available at a retailer here. An 18 oz tub costs around $60 at Amazon.

So, I went at it with sandpaper I had on hand: 320, 400, 600, 800, 1200, 3000. Then I followed with MAAS again. These results are after 2-3 minutes at each grit.



A lot of the black stuff came away with no visible pitting or penetration into the steel that I can see. I’m getting itchy to try it out so I’ll put an edge on it and try shaving before I do any more cosmetic work.

First shave with this big blade was excellent.

Did my normal progression: Shapton 1k for bevel set => BBW => Coticule => Oozuku => leather 40 laps



I think the RAD gods were smiling on me

The stabilizer still needs to be taken down. It did hit the stones while honing.

There is still a lot of cosmetic cleanup needed before it looks like something Karlej presents. That might have to wait until I can access a buffer.

I will keep the existing scales for a while. I have some black and some white bone scale blanks, but I’ll have to shape them to make them truly scale worthy. Don’t know if I’m up to that yet.

I also have some streaked horn pre-drilled scales that I might try out. Or, I might just leave things as they are.

That blade is coming along very well. Nice narrow bevel. And in your original pics the backside scale looks to be in good condition. If the front scale is in similar condition they are an easy clean up and save. It's great to see these old razors brought back to life. Good stuff.

This photo shows you how hollow ground this is. The etching ain’t just advertising.

From what I can see those scales are very salvageable. I have taken scales in far worse condition back to near mint condition. Here's one I did
https://sharprazorpalace.com/custom-...ml#post1939882
There are many posts/threads about horn restoration.
Here is one thing that you get great results from with minimal work and time invested
https://sharprazorpalace.com/worksho...ml#post1932806

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

From what I can see those scales are very salvageable. I have taken scales in far worse condition back to near mint condition. Here's one I did
https://sharprazorpalace.com/custom-...ml#post1939882
There are many posts/threads about horn restoration.
Here is one thing that you get great results from with minimal work and time invested
https://sharprazorpalace.com/worksho...ml#post1932806

Thanks Paul. I see I commented on that thread - guess my memory isn’t what it used to be, if it ever was

Your big W & B chopper looks very similar to my razor, right down to profile, scales and collars. A standard for me to aim for.

I'm with Paul. Save the original scales, collars, and wedge.

Keeping the as original as possible, is always my goal. Repairing horn is quite easy. Lots of it in the workshop thread, "What are you working on"