Thread: My first restoration

Well, I just finished my first restoration. I aimed low for my first razor and hence there's not a huge amount of work done on this. It's already pre-ordered by a friend of mine who's getting into straights - I'll give it to him once I'm happy with the edge on it.

Sadly no "before" photo's, but it's a 6/8 Cadman & Sons Bengall, full hollow grind with round point, very little hone wear and no chips. Synthetic scales with 'Bengall' logo. The blade had some etching but when it arrived it had some pretty deep rust which took a lot of sanding.

I sanded the blade with 400, 800, 1200, 1500 wet and dry paper over 3 evenings, and then used a felt wheel on my dremel with some brown polishing compound. It came up pretty shiny although there's a fair amount of staining left over from the rust, it looks better in real life than in the photo. It would take a fair amount of work to get this looking perfect, but my friend is going to use it as a daily shaver so he doesn't want me going overboard on it.

I've done two pyramids on it so far with a test shave between them, it's just about shave ready now but it feels a little dull still. I'm going to shave with it tomorrow morning then maybe another pyramid or two tomorrow night.

Great start and I'm sure your friend will be very happy with it I hope to see more of these threads, coming from you

Thanks.

I'm also working on an ES-EX Germany 5/8 roundpoint blade which should be really nice when it's done, very little rust, staining or hone wear but needs new scales.

I have a 7/8 Dubl Duck Special No1, and 2x 8/8 (or maybe 9/8) Wade & Butcher meat choppers on their way from Ebay to work on next. If I get good I'm going to start doing these as a hobby, and get into making scales too.

Only problem is I want to keep the DD and one of the W&B's for myself, so my business will be off to a slow start!

I know what you mean. My sales pieces keep making it into my rotation. I came very close to buying back that KC

I'm on to my 3rd test with this razor, my face is getting raw and starting to look like this guys ----->

The edge is improving slowly, it gives a pretty good shave now and the bevel looks nice and narrow on both sides. I guess it's just a case of keep going with the pyramids and test shaving in between honings. I just hope it doesn't take too much longer as my mate is keen to start shaving with it, and I want to go back to my new Maestro.

If the progress is TOO slow, you may wish to take it back to the sandpaper and do 50-70 trips before giving it about 50 on the 4k (tape the spine). Then it should be ready within a pyramid or 2.