Thread: Bluing or tarnish?

Hey all,
I just received this razor that I won on ebay, ANTIQUE STRAIGHT RAZOR WESTER BUTZ MANGANESE BONE KNIFE - eBay (item 330253863509 end time Jul-24-08 18:20:00 PDT)

I don't have any pictures of my own right now. Unfortunately, these photos don't represent it extremely well. The blade was a little looser at the pivot pin than I expected it to be so I decided to take out of the scales, clean everything up and put it all back together. Being my first attempt at anything like this, I now have a blade and a nice set of cracked bone scales. Live and learn eh?
OK, now I have a blade which brings me to my question. I don't know if the tang is tarnished or blued. From the ebay pics, you can't really see the root of the question, I guess it's the flash or the lighting. It is shiny where the pivot washer was and a little of the bluing or tarnish is worn off around the lettering on both sides of the tang. It is also worn off and shiny in a spot on both sides of the very end of the tang where it flips up. Other than those spots the tang has a pretty even gray color. The body of the blade is nice and shiny. I cleaned it all up with some maas but I have not taken any sand paper to it yet. Any thoughts or advise is appreciated.

Thanks

I have a Wester Bros Manganese Steel razor, which has a factory blued tang.

Originally Posted by SteveS

I have a Wester Bros Manganese Steel razor, which has a factory blued tang.

Thanks Steve, I will just stick with the cleaning and will not sand the tang.

+1 on SteveS's reply, Wester Bros. and your are essentially the same - I also had one with a blued tang.