Thread: First Restoration Need some help!

Hello everyone, I've started to hand sanding of my razor. There are little actual rust on the blade and it came of quickly. But I don't know what the black areas are. They don't come of easily with 220 grit. Can anyone seen this before. What shall I do?

The black areas are most likely rust. If you continue to remove the black you will find pitting underneath. Before you receive anymore advice on what to do, what are you hoping to acheive in your restoration? The advice for obtaining a mirror finish is going to be a bit different than going for a period aged look.

Matt

Thanks for reply Matt, my first goal is remove all the rust as much as possible. I know it's quite difficult to obtain a mirror finish from that razor, but a little period aged look is ok for me.

First off it has been said many times for good reason:

Make sure you can set a bevel on the razor.
NOTHING is worse than doing a TON of work to a blade only to find out it is bent, crooked or somehow out of wack.

Proceed from there on how you want it to look.

Originally Posted by Chevhead

First off it has been said many times for good reason:

Make sure you can set a bevel on the razor.
NOTHING is worse than doing a TON of work to a blade only to find out it is bent, crooked or somehow out of wack.

Proceed from there on how you want it to look.

Thank you for reply, I know that criteria and don't worry this razor was shave ready and I shaved couple times with this. Now I want to make her look beautiful again.

For handsanding, start by reading up here Handsanding howto and http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...tml#post809470.

One tip I learned from RezDog awhile back was to use a piece of steel wool dipped in polishing compound to scrub the razor with. This will remove most of the rust without removing more metal or damaging the etching. Once most of the rust is removed, you can make a decision as to whether or not to sand out the pitting all of the way or to leave it as is and polish it with some off the shelp polishing compound (Mothers, MASS, Blue Magic......).

Be warned that it takes quite a bit of effort and may not turn out how you envision it, but it's all part of the process of learning the skill set. I currently restore 2 that don't go how I imagined for every 1 that goes how I wanted it to.

I have found that before I go to sandingI use CLR and a soft brass brush. This gets rid of most rust and grunge. Then I use bartenders friend (scouring powder for pots) and a scotch brute sponge scrubber. This makes for a lot less sanding. Good luck.

I did some handsanding with 200/320/400 grit. But I couldn't remove all the rust but most of it. I may think to return 120 grit and all thw way up again or I can continue with the 600/800/1000/1200 grit. What you guys think?
Thank you for your replies.

the 220 scratches are pretty deep at this point. If you use a backer like a cork on your sandpaper it will help to keep things straight and more of the lines crisp as you proceed. Make sure you start wet sanding with WD-40 or similar once you hit 600, it will keep the scratch pattern a little more consistent and give the steel a nice glow. You can hit it with steel wool and polish after the 2K grit, and then just the polish to finish, if it is a little pitted back up to 2K and sand in one direction to get a matte or satin finish. Wine corks are my sanding backer of choice but many things will work. One of the fellows here uses old hair curlers. Be sure to follow the other good points already made.

Hi RezDog, what is your opinion if I go over with lower grit such as 100 or 120, would the remain rusts be removed? Then I can go up 200/320/400/600/800/1000/1200 and so on what do you think?
Thank you.

Originally Posted by RezDog

the 220 scratches are pretty deep at this point. If you use a backer like a cork on your sandpaper it will help to keep things straight and more of the lines crisp as you proceed. Make sure you start wet sanding with WD-40 or similar once you hit 600, it will keep the scratch pattern a little more consistent and give the steel a nice glow. You can hit it with steel wool and polish after the 2K grit, and then just the polish to finish, if it is a little pitted back up to 2K and sand in one direction to get a matte or satin finish. Wine corks are my sanding backer of choice but many things will work. One of the fellows here uses old hair curlers. Be sure to follow the other good points already made.