Thread: Chasing 1820's factory finish: Stenton Improved Silver Steel

Originally Posted by regularjoe

Those scales look really great to me. Kinda makes me think maybe I should have tried to save some of the ones I tossed on reciept.

The whole thing is top notch IMO. Thanks for posting.

I don't mind being an evangelist for repairing horn scales. They can almost always be repaired! And like a gunfighter, their scars make'em look better!

Nicely done...and great timing. I couldn't help but pull the trigger on a similar razor. I'm waiting for it to arrive, but from the photos, the spine and tang look blued...but it needs a lot of love, so your approach may work nicely.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item...obalID=EBAY-US

I had a snipe in on that.

The month had been spendy enough that it wasn't MUCH of a snipe though -- never even triggered.

I agree. The tang and spine look blued. Also, the lettering seems to be gold-filled, so that's an extra thing to watch out for. If at all possible, keep the original scales. Even cracks at the pivot can be fixed.

It's early 1820's, and I've never seen another quite like it.

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

I had a snipe in on that.

The month had been spendy enough that it wasn't MUCH of a snipe though -- never even triggered.

I agree. The tang and spine look blued. Also, the lettering seems to be gold-filled, so that's an extra thing to watch out for. If at all possible, keep the original scales. Even cracks at the pivot can be fixed.

It's early 1820's, and I've never seen another quite like it.

ha, it ended fairly early in the morning, and i remember laying in bed saying "oh well" and bidding. i might have talked myself out of it if i'd had my first cup of coffee.

i'm going to try and keep as much of it original as possible...i'll just have to see what i'm dealing with when it arrives. either way it looks like it will be a long project that will mostly be hand sanded to try and preserve what i can.

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

Also, the lettering seems to be gold-filled, so that's an extra thing to watch out for. If at all possible, keep the original scales. Even cracks at the pivot can be fixed.

It's early 1820's, and I've never seen another quite like it.

It looks like the lettering is filled with red rust. What does gold-filled lettering signify as something to look out for?

Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

It looks like the lettering is filled with red rust. What does gold-filled lettering signify as something to look out for?

I think it's a mix (rust and gold)...but on the look out note, i was thinking it's tricky for restoration...if I sanded it all down and reblued it, no more gold lettering. We'll see how much needs to be done when it arrives...

Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

It looks like the lettering is filled with red rust. What does gold-filled lettering signify as something to look out for?

I'm pretty sure there's gold leaf in there as well as rust. As far as what it signifies, most likely simply that it was a more upscale product.

Originally Posted by ryanjewell

I think it's a mix (rust and gold)...but on the look out note, i was thinking it's tricky for restoration...if I sanded it all down and reblued it, no more gold lettering. We'll see how much needs to be done when it arrives...

Fill in the letters with nail polish before you sand and blue, then acetone and a brush will clean them back out. Alternately, you could just clean the rust out of the letters using naval jelly, fill them with nail polish, sand, blue and then re-apply gold leaf after cleaning out the polish. You can pick up gold leaf in small quantities pretty cheap at places like Michael's.