Thread: Yankee Cutlery Co. unknown year. (pics)

You can put some polish (I use Flitz, and know nothing of Barkeeper's Friend) on a piece of ribbon and work that between the scales to get the yuck out. Some people use dental floss around the pins. The same polish will freshen up the blade. I don't know if it will remove the patina, but it will make the patina more shiny. It's fine for use on the outsides of the scales, too. I use paper towel for polishing, NEVER a Dremel.

Post a picture so we can see how it cleans up.

Best wishes.

well, I just got my other razor from ebay, and it is shave-ready, so this Yankee is going to be a fun little project for me. this is my first restoration, and since I'm a college student, it will be done on the cheap, but I think I've got big plans for it. I'm still going to have someone else grind the tip flat for me though.

I got the razor out of the scales, but alas one of the scales cracked at both ends.I'm not too worried about it though, because I found a piece of Birdseye maple a while back that I haven't managed to find a use for that just found its use as scales and eventually a matching brush handle.

I've started sanding down the blade to remove the patina and fortunately I haven't found much pitting. I've started with 60 grit, and plan to work my way up through the grits. I have as high as 2000 readily available, and then I can get ahold of some compound... I dunno if my mom's dremel has a buffing wheel or not - or if she knows where her dremel is.

Hi phoenix,

Sorry to hear about your scales. Can you epoxy the damage?

Be really, really careful with the Dremel. There have been lots of stories here (and pictures too) of damage done by Dremels. You can catch the edge with a buffing wheel, and at 20000 rpm there's no going back. It'll snag a piece of metal from the blade, or even send the whole blade airborne. If you're lucky, only the blade will be harmed. Once you're out of the 2000 grit sandpaper, you don't really need high speed buffing anyway, in my opinion. Just polish on a rag, and the same patience that got you through the sandpaper.

Do you know anyone who reloads ammunition? They'd probably have a vibratory polisher you can leave the blade in for a couple of days. There's nothing safer than dropping the blade in a bowl of walnut shells and walking away from it. I just got a polisher yesterday, and have a blade humming around in it right now. And I know where my Dremel tool is at.

Something safer than a Dremel, if you still want that immediate control (and, I admit, faster results) is a dog toenail grinder. It doesn't run as fast as a Dremel, and there's a clutch so it can't get all wound up in toe hair and tear it out. That means it probably can't work up enough torque to break a blade, or fling it very far either. That's what I use when I break down and simply must spin something against a blade.

Here's a cautionary tale from the Workshop forum. I see you've got a post there, too, about not being able to sand into the shoulder. That's another place where the vibratory tumbler is a miracle machine. Here's the very long thread about that.

Anyway, good luck with your work. Glad to hear you've got one in the house to shave with, too.

Best wishes

Originally Posted by roughkype

Sorry to hear about your scales. Can you epoxy the damage?

Possibly. I haven't thrown them out yet, but I've got the wood picked out to make the replacements.

Originally Posted by roughkype

Here's a cautionary tale from the Workshop forum. I see you've got a post there, too, about not being able to sand into the shoulder. That's another place where the vibratory tumbler is a miracle machine. Here's the very long thread about that.

eek! I might just go ahead and stick with hand-polishing for now. I don't want a flying razor.

not exactly mirror-finish, but I'm happy with the way it looks for now.

Nice work!

I'll be finishing the scales off with a copper rod and stainless washers, obviously not the bolts.

Those are really nice looking scales!

I'd suggest something other than copper; once you get some water on it and the steel, it'll try to be a battery and you'll get corrosion. Copper's kind of bad that way. Plus it's usually pretty soft. It would make for good contrast but I think it'd be trouble in the long run.

Originally Posted by roughkype

Those are really nice looking scales!

I'd suggest something other than copper; once you get some water on it and the steel, it'll try to be a battery and you'll get corrosion. Copper's kind of bad that way. Plus it's usually pretty soft. It would make for good contrast but I think it'd be trouble in the long run.

Even if I varnished the steel?