Thread: My first razor project on my W&B-to sand or not to sand?

My razor arrived yesterday. I unpinned and cleaned and polished the scales. I cleaned the lead wedge. On the blade, I removed the surface rust with a dremel and felt polishing pad with 1500, 5000, and 12000 grit compounds. I hand polished with mothers then rubbed with oil.

My question about the scales is: should the neatsfoot oil treatment be rubbed on and off, or do I let them set with a good coating for a while?

My question about the blade is: To the naked eye it looks nice not mirror though. I did not use sandpaper for fear of ruining the etching. But under the scope you can see how porous the surface is. So should I try to go further or would you leave well enough alone.

This is the original condition:


This is my progress and you can see the surface under the scope:

To sand or not to sand is kind of a personal issue. I like patina and may not have even cleaned this one, it didn't look rusty in the first shot. The scales are looking rather shiny now too. My approach is first off the scales or sometimes the whole razor goes into a heavy ziploc bag with a little oil. I lt it sit there until I'm ready to deal with it further. The oil will eventually leak through the plastic so don't leave it too long. Other than that I like your progress and happy pinning.