First restoration: 17/16" Wade and Butcher

I've been using my Grandfather's safety razor that was issued to him by the U.S. Army during WW2. Plagued by shaving issues prior, it was a godsend and really gave me an interest in the art of shaving. I recently decided to step up my game and get a straight razor - but I wanted to get one that I could restore and that would last forever so that I could hand it down to my children and grandchildren. So far I am pleased with the progress I've made, but I'm unsure of how to tackle the line of very tiny pits along the razor edge. Admittedly, since it was my first restore I was quite timid when sanding near the edge. What would you gents advise I do? I don't mind some major pits (for example, the pit near the spine and makers mark), but the line of tiny pits along the edge bothers me. I've tried to minimize the amount of metal loss, so I started with 600 grit sandpaper and moved up to 800, then 1000, started doing both dry and then wet at 1200, 1500, 2000, and then 3000. After that, I used white jewelers rouge followed by green with my (braces for the cringes) dremel tool in a vice. I have the aforementioned sandpapers, a dremel, and all colors of jewelers rouges.

Here are the images:

Taken with my DSLR: http://imgur.com/a/drING

Smartphone with jewler's loupe held up to the lens: http://imgur.com/a/qmFDk

If you click the gear wheel in the top right of the image you can see the full resolution files.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Jordan

Welcome to the forum. You picked a nice blade to restore. What do you have in mind for the scales?

Nice to be here! I have been lurking for a while, trying to absorb as much knowledge as possible. I was debating on either preban ivory or a burlwood... Probably going with Amboyan Burl, if I can find some suitable blanks.

The pits along the edge don't look too bad from the pics I see. They don't look deep enough to affect the cutting edge, but only honing will tell for sure.
Are you going to hone it?
Great job so far.
Love the idea of Amboyna Burl.

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Originally Posted by souschefdude

The pits along the edge don't look too bad from the pics I see. They don't look deep enough to affect the cutting edge, but only honing will tell for sure.
Are you going to hone it?
Great job so far.
Love the idea of Amboyna Burl.

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They aren't deep at all, but the uniformity and density makes it obvious that I didn't do a good enough job near the edge. I want to work them out of the blade purely from an aesthetic standpoint. :) Not sure if I should start with sandpaper (if so, what grit?) or if a black rouge would be enough. I'll probably send it off to be honed for now, since I do not own any honing gear. Still looking for the blanks for the scales, but I do think the Amboyna Burl would be gorgeous.

J

Great job that blade looks great. Look forward to seeing the finished product.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jordanp

They aren't deep at all, but the uniformity and density makes it obvious that I didn't do a good enough job near the edge. I want to work them out of the blade purely from an aesthetic standpoint. :) Not sure if I should start with sandpaper (if so, what grit?) or if a black rouge would be enough. I'll probably send it off to be honed for now, since I do not own any honing gear. Still looking for the blanks for the scales, but I do think the Amboyna Burl would be gorgeous.

J

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Personally I prefer sandpaper. There's benefits and drawbacks to either method.
600 grit should be about as low as you have to go, that is a big heavy blade, so 400 wouldn't be out of the question either.
I have made a cork drum sander that allows me to take a blade from 600 grit on up to 2000 in progression in about an hour. Check out my previous thread about restoration for a Member to see a pic. It is very simple, a cork on a drill bit with double sticky back duct tape that you tape the sandpaper too. Use in a variable drill. Caution: Always ensure the rotation is from the spine to the edge!

Thanks Webbie, I appreciate it!

Souschefdude, that's actually not a bad idea! I tried the folded sponge method, where you use a folded sponge with sandpaper over the fold, but found that doing it by hand gave me more consistent results. Do you think I should start the entire blade over at 600, or just the pits near the edge? Thanks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jordanp

Thanks Webbie, I appreciate it!

Souschefdude, that's actually not a bad idea! I tried the folded sponge method, where you use a folded sponge with sandpaper over the fold, but found that doing it by hand gave me more consistent results. Do you think I should start the entire blade over at 600, or just the pits near the edge? Thanks!

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I would start over on the whole blade. Spot removing here and there will leave the blade looking beat up. You want consistency across the whole blade. Any spot removal will result in waviness, and your eyes will see it, and it will drive you nuts.
Go light on the pressure, and go across the whole face of the blade evenly.

Sounds good. This time I will start with 400 grit and do two passes each way, then proceed as I did before. Any suggestions you would make to my previous process? I outlined it more in the links to the photo albums. Will pay more attention to the edge area this time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by souschefdude

I would start over on the whole blade. Spot removing here and there will leave the blade looking beat up. You want consistency across the whole blade. Any spot removal will result in waviness, and your eyes will see it, and it will drive you nuts.
Go light on the pressure, and go across the whole face of the blade evenly.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by jordanp

Sounds good. This time I will start with 400 grit and do two passes each way, then proceed as I did before. Any suggestions you would make to my previous process? I outlined it more in the links to the photo albums. Will pay more attention to the edge area this time.

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Alter the direction of your grit passes just slightly. This makes it easier to see when you are ready to proceed to the next grit. So at 400 maybe go straight up and down. At 600 go at a slight angle from vertical. When all the 400 lines are gone you can go to 800, running vertical again til all the angled 600 lines are gone, etc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jordanp

Sounds good. This time I will start with 400 grit and do two passes each way, then proceed as I did before. Any suggestions you would make to my previous process? I outlined it more in the links to the photo albums. Will pay more attention to the edge area this time.

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Your process looks pretty good, with the exception of MAAS cleaning for 10 HOURS? Was that a typo?
I usually do 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000 all on the drum sander, dry. (I'll have to see about adding a wet pass or two at the higher grits). Then a pass of white rouge on the buffer, then Mother's on the buffer.
Are the scales really that bad? Can't tell from the pics. They seem restorable in the few pics they are shown, or are you just drooling for Amboyna?

If I can add one suggestion...
That blade looks great and those black horn scales really don't look bad. Just a wipe with neatsfootoil, let them dry and clean the scales with a cloth.
The original scales look beautiful on those wade & butcher blades so I wouldn't change the scales.
If I can, I keep a razor all original.

Nice Job! It is looking Good :tu

very nice, it shines

souschefdude: no exaggeration! I did at least 5 hours of polishing with MAAS before I started sanding - could have been less than 10, but definitely more than 5. Taking this restoration nice and slow. :) The damage to the scales is hard to show in the pictures, but the scales look melted which I have shown in one of the photos, plus there were a couple of small chips and cracks not pictured. I'll try to get some better ones up there soon. But yes, I do have a particular lust for the Amboyna Burl...

Dimitry: I definitely would have reused the scales if possible (I share your affinity for the all-original aspect), but the damage seemed like it would be impossible to repair. I'll try to get better photos of the damaged scales up tonight.

Chevhead and ischiapp: Thanks to you both! Definitely a work in progress but it's turning out nicely so far!

I decided to take souschefdude's advice and go down to 400 grit, but I wasn't seeing the results I wanted with just two passes... so far Ive done about 7 passes (four lengthwise, three horizontally) and I almost have -all- of the pits out. I don't know offhand if I have pictures of the pits near the barber's notch up, but on the side opposite of the makers mark they are almost fully sanded out. Perhaps a couple of more passes and they will be removed. Thanks for all of the advice guys, I really appreciate it!

Hey guys, sorry for the slow updates - lots of stuff going on. I've been working on there razor a lot this week, and wanted to keep you updated on my progress and get your opinion on something...

Here are the updated photos: Razor - 12/12 - Imgur

Firstly, you can see the damage to the scales. That is a sizeable chunk missing, plus the shape of the interior edge of the scale (where it is very thin due to the chunk being removed) looks warped in such a way that makes me think heat damage. Anyhow, I actually went down to 400 grit on the blade and wasn't seeing the results I wanted, so I went down to 320 grit, doing multiple passes (heel to toe, then spine to edge, then heel to toe again, etc). I was able to get all of the pits removed along the edge of the blade, and most near the shoulder and barbers notch. The remaining pits do not bother me at all - I would have to remove more metal than I am comfortable with right now in order to get those out, unless you guys think I am overestimating how bad they are?

Issues I had this time around: as you can see, there is a line near the shoulder of the non makers-mark side of the razor. I was using a nail file (with the rounded edge cut off) with sandpaper wrapped around it to get in to the hard to reach areas along the shoulder, and I'm guessing I made that indention with a low grit paper and didn't realize it until I was using the 3000 grit. :( Also, I've read countless individuals testifying that the dremel tool is terrible for straight razor work, and I can see why. I had the speed settings on the slowest it would go (dremel tool model 3000) and you can see the uneven polishing done. I've used the dremel tool successfully in the past, but with one of the external speed controllers that lowers the speed/torque of the tool even further. Not sure if I should try this on the other side or just wait for the micromesh I ordered earlier today. I'll have to resand the side that I put the sandpaper line on - thinking about starting at 1000 grit over the entire side and moving up to 3000 from there, then doing the micromesh - or I could go buy a regular drill and lock the rpms down to a lower speed with a 3" cloth wheel on it... :)

What do you guys think?

I hear what you're saying about the dremel tool. I think an oscillation type sander would be better. At least your finish would be uniform. IMO do not move on from the lowest grit until you're completely satisfied with the defect removal. I see it the same as setting the bevel honing resist the temptation to move on until it's right.

Blade looks very nice. Keep your patience and enjoy the process. You'll have that edge for life.

I'm definitely satisfied with the pitting removal - I don't need it to be a perfect blade. I think too much metal/detail would be lost to get to that point.

Just to clarify, the dremel tool was only used with medium hardness felt wheels for polishing with jewelrs rouge - all of the sanding was done by hand. Also, this time I had a 30x jewelers loupe to examine the blade each time I made a pass in sanding it down. I'd highly recommend getting one, it really helped to make sure I was getting the progress I wanted.

I would repair those scales if it was my razor. I don't think that's too bad really. Some epoxy with black dye and a little sanding could have them looking good as new. And for that particular razor, I don't think anything else could look better than the originals. Something about the FBU, it just looks perfect in black horn.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jordanp

I'm definitely satisfied with the pitting removal - I don't need it to be a perfect blade. I think too much metal/detail would be lost to get to that point.

Just to clarify, the dremel tool was only used with medium hardness felt wheels for polishing with jewelrs rouge - all of the sanding was done by hand. Also, this time I had a 30x jewelers loupe to examine the blade each time I made a pass in sanding it down. I'd highly recommend getting one, it really helped to make sure I was getting the progress I wanted.

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I totally agree with you. I think sometimes when restoring blades one can get carried away chasing perfection. I have purchased some for restoration that have me wondering if I'm going to do it because I love the patena. I do have a Wade & Butcher Celebrated Rattler that I'm going to take the distance and scale it with some snake skin wood. I think it will look awesome. Just waiting til I go on vacation later this month before I start. I might even be inclined to sand it then put it in a case tumbler for a couple days while I'm out of town. Anyway I digress.

Love that blade of yours it looks great. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.