Best course of action with a blade like this?

[kcb5150]

Worried about that staining on the heel on the back side with such a thin blade and the gold on the front being spared. Not really into losing masses of height on another 14 blade.

[kcb5150]

[BobH]

You could try 0000 steel wool and a metal polish with the gold wash and etching taped off for protection. That would let you see how bad or good the metal was under that staining. If there is pitting under the staining you may lose a bit of height honing to get to good solid metal.

Bob

[10Pups]

I would start with this and polishes. Blue Magic first and if I had to go with more abrasive polishes.
The cool thing about this tool is it has backbone like wire but no scratches. Not sure how it would affect the gold but you can easily avoid that with care.

Fiberglass Rust Brush Detail Prep & Cleaning Tool : Amazon.com : Automotive

[kcb5150]

Frustrating. This was clearly used with the factory edge and then put away improperly. Sucks. Dry your nice blades always.

[10Pups]

I loaned a young man a straight once to try it out. A week later he brings it back all rusty wanting to know what kind of poo I was trying to sell him. I took it and said, you are a messy baby and I am not selling or loaning you anything you are just going to destroy ever again.

[kcb5150]

Yeah, loan newbies solingen hardware store blades or give them honed up gold dollars.

[Laurens]

Actually, as the staining is right at the edge, I would hone it up first and see if there's a proper bevel to be had. When you're sure of that, I would try steel polish on a q-tip and try to remove just the pitting and polish the surrounding metal as little as you can, for it might leave a different glow of polish than the rest of the blade.

Beautiful razor, by the way!

[kcb5150]

Thank you guys. I am going to process all of this and give it some thought before I commit to a course of action. These are hard to replace even if you have the cash, so not going to be dumb about it. It just occurred to me that I put this in the wrong part of the resto forum. Could you guys move it to the workshop?

[SS502MC]

I would send it off to be honed by one of our members. They can examine the blade and recommend a course of action for you also. They have a wealth of knowledge and will honestly discuss it with you.