Challenge Cutlery restore WIP
Won this on Ebay for just over $20 shipped. I saw it was made in CT in Bridgeport and since I live in CT, I figured I would go for it! When I got it, there was thick dark tarnish on the tang areas (almost looked like scale) and the blade was fairly dark with some dark staining. Didn't see much rust wise, so I decided to have a go with the MAAS Polish on my finger. I saw that this was working and the blade etch popped out; I had no clue it was there before! I can see the letters "cel" on the top line and the last word is razor, there is a rifle in the middle and "full hollow ground" on the bottom line.
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...575001/CR1.jpg
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...575001/CR2.jpg
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...575001/CR3.jpg
After seeing the finger polishing work, I decided to break out Mr. Dremel and the felt Buffs with the MAAS and went to town on the blade and tang more and touched up the handle as well.
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...575001/CR5.jpg
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...575001/CR6.jpg
The edge had some tiny nicks in it, so I taped the spine with 2 layers of electrical tape and went to town. 600 grit diamond block to remove the chips, hard J Nat Aoto (around 3-5K), then Yaginoshima Asagi and then on to the Ozuka Asagi with some 1/4 micron CBN spray, .25 CBN on a balsa strop, then the linen and leather strop. VERY sharp now, one of the sharper razors I own so far! There is a little smile at the toe of the blade, still trying to figure out how to clean it up more, but the soft strops seemed to clean that area up pretty well. I prefer a round point instead of the square point, so I don't mind the smile, but want to clean up the bevel there more.
I cleaned up the blade with denatured alcohol and some got on the scales; they scales then felt very sticky. Guessing they are Celluloid? I have some thin woods here (rosewood, bloodwood, lacewood, redheart, bubinga, etc), so I may end up doing a new handle for it as well. I also got in some very nice stabilized Curly Koa and Claro Walnut in 1/4" thick pieces :)
