Thread: Need help ASAP! Cleaning old razors

Hey everyone,

I just acquired an old collection of razors that belonged to an old barber. He did take pretty good care of them, however, some of them are really old and there is some cleaning I need to do. My biggest problem which is actually not a bad problem at all, so I'm told, is discoloration on the blades. Its not pitting or rust but just light black and grey spots. Some of the blades have gold leaf on them so I'm trying to be careful with them. I was able to get "some" of it off just using alcohol but I don't know what to use to get the shiny and new. Please if anyone has suggestions, and I'm sure someone will, let me know asap. I'm thinking of buying a Dremel and some polishing tips to really get them clean but can anyone tell me if theres something else that would work better or something else I should try using? Im worried that maybe a Dremel might be too hard on the blades? I attached a picture of one of my blade that has some of the markings on it for you to see what I mean.

Thanks for all your help.

-Stropping Young Lad

Well I have a couple questions. Is there "black stuff" on the gold wash? If so, which would you rather have, a blade with patina and goldwash or a very shiny blade with no gold wash? AFAIK the etch will remain if you take the gold off, so you should still see the design.

Personally, I would clean up the tang and pivot area as best as you could with some polish and leave the blade portion alone. From the pictures, it seems as though the black is far enough away from the edge not to cause problems with the sharpness.

Hold off on the dremel for now. Some polish such as Maas or Mother's to start would be good, just careful with the gold wash. It will come off easily.

Thanks I was very weary of taking off the Gold. It honed and shaved very nicely so its not causing any problems but just for appearance purposes I'd like to get rid of it. When using the polish on the tang and shank what should I use to apply it and rub it? Just a cloth or my fingers? When I used alcohol to clean it, I felt like i need something more rough to really take it off so I used an old face cloth that was a little stiff. Also, the scales are really tight on this particular razor. Whats the best way to loosen them up without making them too loose?

Thanks again.

-Stropping Young Lad

TwistedOak has a good suggestion, keep to the tang, or the gold wash will most likely be removed. My suggestion about the Dremel is because they can be useful, but can be dangerous to both you and the blade. It's something you can learn, but do a search and you will find some threads regarding blades being damaged by a Dremel. I use a dremel on the tang, but I try to stay away from the blade. It's very easy to heat up the blade too much and mess up the temper of the steel.

Originally Posted by ShaveLikeAFish

Thanks I was very weary of taking off the Gold. It honed and shaved very nicely so its not causing any problems but just for appearance purposes I'd like to get rid of it. When using the polish on the tang and shank what should I use to apply it and rub it? Just a cloth or my fingers? When I used alcohol to clean it, I felt like i need something more rough to really take it off so I used an old face cloth that was a little stiff. Also, the scales are really tight on this particular razor. Whats the best way to loosen them up without making them too loose?

Thanks again.

-Stropping Young Lad

Soft cloth works well. You'll have to wait on a more experienced member about the tight scales. I don't know of a way to fix that, although it may be you just need to add some lubricant.

Yeah I never even thought of that. Seems like something you can easily mess up big time. OK No Dremel haha

I have had reasonable success using a simple eraser end of a pencil to rub carefully around the etching. It gives you enough control that you can avoid hitting the gold wash. Stuff like MAAS will take most gold wash right off!

The black stuff is on the gold as well as around it and on the shank and tang. I have some razors that have it all over and some that just have spots of it. Some with gold ans some without so the problem is kind of all over the place in my collection. haha. Thanks for all the great ideas and comments. I hope I helped out some others with the same problems.

-Stropping Young lad

I don't think I've ever read a way to just loosen the pivot without completely removing the pin and blade from the scales. However, you could use a small brush and some polish like maas, flitz, autosol, etc. to get to the tang that is blocked by the tip of the scales. Then you can use a piece of floss to get out any build up that may be in between the scales and the tang.

Or if you wanted to try your hand at peening, you could remove the pin, remove the blade, polish it as much as you want, and then reassemble with your own pin.