Thread: Imperial razor restoration

Hi everyone!

I bought an old razor that I plan to restore and I would like to know what do you think of the condition of the blade. I don't know what are the dark zone on the blade, it looks more like stain than rust and I don't know it I will have to remove a lot of metal to make it shinny again.

IMO that dark staining looks like pitting.
It will probably take a bit of metal removel to get it to a high polish. which may result in loosing the etch
I'd sand as much as posible without really compromising the etch myself. You'd probably be left with some patina/pitting, but to me, thats not a bad thing
Grant

There seems to be original grind marks, so I think that a satin finish would be a good option that would look close to original. BTW a satin finish would also tend to hide any remaining pitting, so more of the etch could be saved.

Have fun and restore it to your tastes.

Jonathan

Thank you for the replies, I like the idea of a satin finish. I will do some research on how to do it with sand paper, I guess that it's just to stop the progression to a lower grit. Also, I notices that a part of the edge seems to had been tapped on something, probably the sink. Do some stropping will realign the edge or it need to be honed to remove the tapped part?

I sand mine down using a piece of sp wrapped around a cork.
I would start at about 800, see if it gets enough of the pitting out to make a usable edge. IMO that would not destroy the etch. If that doesn't work you could use it as artwork, or start again at a lower grit, knowing the etch will probably be sacrificed.
Not sure what you are talking about withthe tap marks, but stropping wont repair much of anything.

The tap thing is not a mark, it looks like the edge had been knocked on something hard. When I move my thumb on the blade going from the spine to the edge, I can feel the bended edge. Here is a picture.