Thread: Razor in desperate need, please help

This is the razor i was talking about, the one my grandma and mom could not get open from rust, well i finally got it in the mail, i got it open no big problem, but there is a lot of rust, but the scales of real tortoise and they are in good shape so they are savable. I need advice on the razor itself, my idea is i can take some sandpaper and just take the rust off them go through sandpaper grits. then i will polish it, and hone it. If anyone has a better idea, or a method i should try, i would like to hear it, also i want to know of all the equipment i need. as you will see in the pics the razor needs a lot of work, i hope it is even possible to restore because it belonged to my grandpa.

My suggestion would be to quickly knock the red rust off with some low grit wet/dry. Then before going any further, take it to the stones. Make sure you can get a clean pit/chip free edge before spending the time and energy going through a sanding progression.

Its going to need a bit of work, thats for sure. How well it comes up depends on how deep any pitting under the rust is and whether the rust has damaged the edge.

To do a restoration like this by hand you'll need sandpaper and micromesh (I use 80-12,000 grit) for the blade, some snips to de-scale the blade and some brass rod and washers to pin it back up again. A ball pein hammer and jewellers anvil will also be very useful for pinning.

I'd start by unpinning the blade and then start with 80 or 120 grit sandpaper to get the rust off and see whats underneath. If the pitting is shallow and hasnt wrecked the edge then you can sand out the pitting and polish it up, then re-pin and hone.

If the pitting is really deep then you'll probably have to compromise and leave some of them alone otherwise you'll burn through the blade. Clean it up as best you can and then re-pin.

When it comes to honing, start at 1k for 20 strokes and take a look at the edge to see if there is any pitting on the edge. If there is then you'll need to get down to fresh clean steel along the whole edge before you progress any higher up the grits.

If the rust has gone right through the blade or wrecked the edge to such an extent that you cant put an edge on it then unfortunately its had it, but it doesnt look like its that bad to me from the pics. It certainly looks salvagable but it will take a bit of time on the low grit sandpaper to get all the rust and pits out.

Hope thats of some help!

Definitely what Theseus and Stu said. The deciding factor as they mentioned is how deep the pitting is, especially at the working edge. This will be the deciding factor as to whether it will be an heirloom for display or one you can shave with.

I might add that it would not be a bad idea to tape the spine if you are going to test the edge for pitting. Also, a microscope would help big time after you set bevel to see what you are working with.

It is curious that some blades pit in a way that looks like swiss cheese with tiny holes that worm deeply into the metal and others more superficially. You wont know the type of pitting until you set your bevel. Good luck to you.

Scales are very nice too. If you have never unpinned before, you might consider getting a little help from someone, real tortous scales are not easy to come by, plus the heirloom factor.

oh god, i am so glad to hear there is some hope in this razor, i already have about 5 razors but i would love to have this razor to come back to life, one quick ? how would i go about un pinning or do you know someone who can unpin for me
and where i can get new pines
and would flush cutters work?
Is there a special kind of sandpaper i need?- and can i get it at williams
is there anything else i should know?
Sorry for all the questions but i need to know what i am in store for.
Thank you

And you may want to consider emailing with a couple of the guys here who do restoration (see Classifieds). If it has sentimental value, and you can spend $75-125, I'd not risk the destroying scales or the blade and have it restored professionally.

The restoration goes well, ummm i am still going at it with 100 grit sandpaper i got rid of all rust, i got rid of most spots of devil spit but there are small patches, i have a lot of pitting. any idea how to get rid of the devil spit(black marks).

Keep sanding right through the blade or learn to live with it. Once you get to the polishing stage, what black marks are left in the pits will probably come out.

Good luck on the restor show us some pics when ur all done. ur grandpa would be proud.

Originally Posted by pcg

And you may want to consider emailing with a couple of the guys here who do restoration (see Classifieds). If it has sentimental value, and you can spend $75-125, I'd not risk the destroying scales or the blade and have it restored professionally.

I second this. If was an ebay special, I'd say do it yourself. But a pro from our forum would give it the best possible restoration and honest opinion if it could be saved at all. Something like this couldn't handle any misjudgements or mistakes, since it was your gramp's blade.