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Today I wandered into an antique store and found four SRs that I want to restore. The metal, scales and edges are in good condition, but as you can see they are in need of some TLC and some serious restoration. I am new to this and I will likely have many questions. I have lots to learn. Sorry about the quality of the photo...
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Yes, it looks like you have some real nice ones there. Congrats on a good find!!
I have many questions...apologies if some of this info is posted elsewhere. My questions:
1. do I have to remove the scales to restore a SR? I am a real beginner and I don't feel quite ready to remove scales at this point.
2. As you can see there is lots of "ageing" on the metal, but the metal itself is not rusted and there is very little pitting or other blemishes. Do you recommend sandpaper or steel wool?
Start with steel wool and see if it works, if not start with a high grit sandpaper like 2500 or 2000. Work down in grit sizes until you are removing rust at a rate acceptable to you. Then start going back up in grit sizes.
I usually remove the scales because there will be rust around the pivot and sometimes inside the scales.
There's a stickied thread in the workshop subforum that pretty much has all of the details in it.
You may want to start with a good scrub first , Then some metal polish. If that's not working, then steel wool and WD40. Still no go.... Sand paper, 1000 grt.
See where I'm going with this...?
Start with the least evasive first.
Its a lot of work, and progress is slow. But well worth it in the end.
You'll enjoy the griffon, its a good shaver. And so will the steel wool...[emoji6]
When I was a youngster I used to see grown men take out their pocket knives and cut a peach, a tomato, sharpen a pencil or whatever. They were usually high carbon steel blades and they were dark grey except for the shine of the cutting edge. In my teens when I began to carry a pocket knife myself I would cut tomatoes to speed up the patina building up on the shiny blade.
Perhaps that is why I leave the patina on old razors such as you've gotten. A bit of semichrome or flitz on a paper towel is about it for me, though I have used 0000 steel wool & some oil for rust on occasion. I had a friend who would always shine up his razors like a new dime in a goat's ass and I asked him once how long it took him to sand an old Sheffield wedge. Ten hours he said, then to the buffing wheels to polish. At that point I resolved to stick with the paper towel and semichrome and cal it good. :)
I like a shine on my razors, provided that's the way they are/were. I won't put it there. The mirror finished they have are from factory on my Vintage razors is still there despite their age and all I have done is a quick polish. Blades in the condition above, I clean up sure, but never polish because I like them to be true to themselves, not being something they aren't. Still, I love what others have done to old blades restoring to original glory, but I don't have the time or patience. A good example is the one in the bone scales below... this was brown when I got it. All I did was a clean and bit of polish. It came out of a Barber Shop (hence the hone wear). Each to their own though.
As to removing the scales, I would avoid it if possible. It's my own feeling on this but unless you can exactly replicate the original pin, re-pinning detracts from the look and ruins a previously all original razor. I have in the past dribbled some rust converter into the pivot, run some wet and dry between the scales and the blade, then oiled and call it good.
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I would try 0000 steel wool with metal polish first and see what that does, you might be very surprised!
I leave the scales alone unless I absolutely have to remove them, they break very easily sometimes
Cool Whizbang, glad you found some future fun. May as well start in on the learning curve of restoration, the Gent's around here, me included will help you get going and happily. ;)
