Thread: What are you working on?

I don’t do much sanding with the scales on. Mostly because if they need much sanding, I fell they likely need a good going over at the pivot. I have done more with a good deep clean with steel wool and polish and left the scales on. It kind of needs to be assessed on a razor to razor basis. The proceed with caution and work more towards preservation certainly lends itself to leaving the scales on. If you feel you did not go far enough you can go back and take them off.

That is two votes for polish and steel wool.

I'll go that route, neither of these razors need much work.

Good to see you come out of your burrow, Dude. FWIW, I have that identical Freddie that I just cleaned up almost identically to your proposed method, and it has been one of my favorites for years. Like others said, you can always do more later if you want-sometimes less is more.

By the way, did you ever dial in that hone I sold you? Just curious.

I just finished up that Scargill, and now I've got about 5 razors that need refreshing. I did a bunch on my Escher yesterday, today I'll focus on the Arkansas. I'll then compare the two groups.

Originally Posted by JellyJar

I've done a couple with the scales still on. My go to starting point lately has been scraping with an SE blade, 3M marine metal polish with a rag or steel wool, and give the scales a good scrubbing with hot soapy water and and old toothbrush. Dental floss works pretty well to get the pivot area cleaned.

That's just about exactly how I do it. Sometimes I will sand with high grit (2k-3k) with the scales on to polish instead of or in addition to the metal polish if it has lots of scratches but if it needs more than that I usually take it apart. Normally I'll start with the polish and then judge from there. Again, the less is more theory. You can always use unwaxed floss and 3M Marine to get around the pivot if it's just grundgy.

I should add I got that method from Mike (Outback). I can't take credit for that method.

Lately I've been getting a lot of mileage out of 3M Metal Polish (also stole the idea from Mike, who sent me a sample a few years ago) rubbed in vigorously with 1k grit crocus cloth in a knife vise. This technique works great for all those blades that are kinda tarnished and gray from oxidation, but don't really need heavy sanding. The grit breaks down into a thick red mud with the polish, and the crocus cloth goes limp quite quickly with use so that you can really get into nooks and crannies.

Tighten up the tang in the vise (with leather pads) while you work on the blade, then flip it around, or vice versa. It also works great with 0000 steel wool. Wipe it clean and switch to a finer polish like Wenol Blue in the tube with an old t-shirt, and you'll have a pretty nice finish.

Of course this works best with an un-pinned blade (which works for me because I buy the majority of my blades in lots without scales for rescaling).

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

I should add I got that method from Mike (Outback). I can't take credit for that method.

Yep, Outback is the man with the 3M.

Hats off to you Mike.

Tomorrow is my day off, and it looks like its gonna be raining and hot. So I guess I'll start in on this W&B that's been sitting in the drawer.



Separated it from its scales last night to access how bad the rust was, at the pivot. Gonna need a bit of sanding on the tang to clean it up, but that's about the extent of it.



The rest should only need a good rubbing with the 3M.