Thread: My $16 Bismarck

This post may get moved since I'm not quite sure where to put it.

This is my newest acquisition, at least till my new brush gets here. Any suggestions on how to get rid of the nasty crap thats on it? I cleaned it a little and got most of the roughness off but theres still a small bit left. Would maas be able to take that away, or is it bad enough that I should send it to someone that has experience getting straights back to all their glory? If it turns out that I need to ship it off who would be able to take care of it?

Speaking for myself I would hit it with the Maas, hone it and shave with it. I like a shiny clean razor but I have a lot of them like yours. As long as the pitting near the bevel isn't too deep it will be a good shaver albeit an ugly one. If the pitting near the bevel is too deep it may be a problem.

It will take hand sanding and then polishing to get rid of all of that stuff and it might cost more than the razor is worth unless you do it yourself. The Maas by itself won't get rid of all of that though it may help some.

try to avoid Dremel if you can. hand cleaning is the best.

+1 on what Jimmy said. I have had good success scraping rust off with a single edge razor blade like those sold in hardware stores for scraping stickers off windshields and for box cutters. After getting the rust off hit it with some Maas or the like. The pitting is another story and will take a lot of work to get them gone. As long as they aren't on the edge you will be fine.

Thanks guys. I do wanna get it back to shiny myself, I'm just not sure where to start. I've already scraped off what scaly rust I could. Honed it yesterday and just got done stropping. I'm gonna shave with it shortly and see how it goes. Since it's my first hone/strop endeavor we'll give it a shot and see what happens.

I'll give you an update later.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

It will take hand sanding and then polishing to get rid of all of that stuff and it might cost more than the razor is worth unless you do it yourself. The Maas by itself won't get rid of all of that though it may help some.

When you say hand sanding I think of a few sheets of wet sandpaper. Is there another, better option I can't think of? What would the grit progression be? Any ideas?

Yep, the wet dry paper with a blackish color. Progression would be starting as low as needed but not much more and progress to 2000 grit being sure you clean up all previous grit. Other option would be up to 400 grit and put into a vibrating tumbler (search forum for tumbler). Another option would be 400 or higher grit with buffing wheels on bench grinder. Another option is dremmel w/ sanding drums and buffing wheels.

Use proper safety devices when using power tools. The risk of sever damage to the razor is highly possible when using power tools and sever injury may occur. Sever cuts, loss of digits and loss of eye(s) is highly possible. Safety glasses are a must. If you are not familiar with power tools I suggest using the hand sanding method.

Originally Posted by SlickWillyTFCF

When you say hand sanding I think of a few sheets of wet sandpaper. Is there another, better option I can't think of? What would the grit progression be? Any ideas?

I use sheets of wet/dry sandpaper. I'll start with 400-grit on the really bad spots. Hard to tell by your pictures but you might not have to go that low.

Otherwise I do 800-, 1000-, 1500-, and finally 2000-grit. I picked all of these up at AutoZone (3M brand). I have the Dremel red polish which I apply very carefully after the 2000-grit. There's a great wiki article on hand-sanding here:
Hand sanding a blade - Straight Razor Place Wiki

I'm down with power tools and all the safety precautions that go with them. I'd prefer the hand method anyway. I'll def. grab some paper and get to work on soon.

Just shaved and it was pretty good. The razor felt softer on the skin than the Fromm shavette number I've been using. I think I did a decent job on the hone/strop, but I'll wait till I can get a new Dovo from SRD to see what an imaculate razor feels like.

Should I also take the scales off to make sure i get all the rust spots while not harming the scales? Where would I get replacement pins and washers for reassembly?