Nice job on the blade and the scales, Paul (says another guy who has dropped things in the shop and effed them up!). One of my 1st razors was an Improved Eagle; every razor nut should have at least one. And I concur on the Tru Oil. Since Mike and Jerry got me strung out on it, I am now on my 3rd bottle, and have refinished a mahogany rifle cabinet, a cedar bar, and just about every other wooden thing in the house! Here are a couple of recent finishes; as Jerry says, a lot of the final finish depends on the wood under it:
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Tru Oil on a couple of brushes made by a local woodworker friend; one in Walnut, and one in African Blackwood. These are his first ones, by the way. I epoxied Maggards 24mm knots in them; the Walnut got 70/30 badger/boar, and the African Blackwood got the SHD 2-Band Badger. Both took an incredible gloss with about 15 super-light coats.
The razor is another Wostenholm IXL thumb-notch I just finished in Bastogne "Tiger" Walnut with a brass-lined Walnut wedge and brass collars and pins. Counting the work I did refinishing/evening out the wedge end with the rest of the scale surfaces, it probably has about 40 super-light coats of TO, with a few coats of RenWax buffed in for protection.
The wooden cigar box re-purposed for honing supplies (tape and scissors, light, magnification, etc.) just happened to be nearby, so of course it got a few coats too!
As I'm experimenting with this finish, I am finding that a few wet-sanding steps with a thinned mix of, say, 50/50ish TO and mineral spirits helps with a high gloss final finish (I have been doing 1k, 2k, and 3k). As Mike always says, hit it with some 0000 steel wool between coats (about every 3rd light coat for me). I have also rediscoverd cheese-cloth as a wonderful final burnishing tool! (another one of those tedious razor tasks you can do while watching tv). It amazes me how this stuff pops the grain and really highlights any chatoyance in highly-figured woods.
Please show us the final product, Paul!