Thread: Obie's Workshop: Lord Help Us!

Gentlemen,

Thank you all for your support and advice. Already I have learned a great deal from you. Thanks for sharing.

Regards,

Obie

My dear Nate,

I am delighted to share with you all the useful and comprehensive information from these fine and generous gentlemen. Enjoy.

I guess this weekend I have a lot of shopping to do.

Regards,

Obie

Isn't that part of the fun :-)
For myself I had most of what I needed before I started, but I still get a great deal of pleasure buying and using my "toys" both old and new.

You are a gentleman Sir Obie, and as before i wish you every pleasure and success, one thing that I don't believe has been stressed however is:
Be Carefull! there are countless ways to do yourself harm when working with metal, there is only one "You" so look after it yes?

A tumbler and walnut /corn cob media saves all the sanding headaches.
A Dremel type of tool with cloth wheels for buffing the blades is a good thing to have.

Hi Obie,

You also mentioned honing these razors as well, in which case I can heartily recommend the Shapton ceramic on glass stones. I have the 1k, 4k, 8k and 16k stones that I purchased from SRD and they are excellent.

I have been able to put an edge that would cleave atoms on the one razor I restored (so far!). I've been looking on eBay for the next few purchases...!

I have heard very good things about the Naniwa superstones as well, so they also would be a good bet.

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

Best,

Stuart

If you plan to hone them as well, it's a useful investment to buy yourself a cheap loupe or microscope so you can inspect the edge in detail.

Good tidings to your new venture. I hope you like it and keep us posted.

Be safe, my friend

I love double sided tape for holding scales together during the shaping process.

Also, if you are going to be spending much time hand sanding blades, you really want to make yourself a jig. Bill Ellis has instructions

Great spirit you have Obie.

I look forward to seeing your updates on the progress you make as you learn, and hope to learn a thing or two (or three) right along with you!

Learning something new is always fun and/or rewarding to me. (not all lessons are "fun", but they are, in the end, rewarding to some degree)

And given what you'll be handling, I hope you'll take the same level of care to those Hollywood hands, as you do that "Hollywood face". Same goes for your eyes and lungs.

I hope you'll keep us updated with lots of photos.

Here's to safety first and gorgeous results.

I can't think of another thing to add to that list for the bare basics - you'll expand that list quickly all on your own.

The one thing you may find yourself wanting fairly quickly is a set of good hones, a finishing stone, and bench strops for chromium oxide, felt, and finishing leather. That's in addition to your daily strop and felt/linen. I say that because I found that the moment I get a blade restored I want to shave with it. So you'll want to become proficient with honing and polishing pretty quickly I'll bet.

Some see it as heresy but I find that a Dremmel (rechargeable) with a good selection of polishing heads/bits/felt along with MAAS saves a LOT of time initially when starting on a blade that looks bad. After a few minutes with MAAS and a felt wheel I can tell if it's worth it or not to restore a blade. I'll restore the blade by hand sanding with high grit sandpaper but the Dremmel (if used responsibly) can save time at the start. And sometimes all a blade needs is cleaning with MAAS and a felt wheel turning slowly.