Thread: I need some advice on some light rust

Hey all, I’m looking for some light restoration/fixing advice. Last week was more humid than usual and I left my razor in the bathroom. I only need to shave every few days so by the time I got back to it there was a light layer of rust on it. No pitting or anything, just surface rust from a few days.

I used a polishing cloth that I have for my stainless firearms and cleaned it up pretty well. After that I took it to the strop for about 70 passes. The problem is that the cutting edge is not cutting well. I believe there might is some rust on that edge that I just can’t get.

So what are my options here? I do not have any sharpening stones but since I have been using a straight razor for almost two years now I was thinking about getting some. I had it sharpened in December. Do I need to do a touch up on it with some stones or something like chromium oxide on the linen side of my strop?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


Justin

I believe while you polished the blade you may have taken the edge off of it ,,, usually during resto work ,, by the time your done you need to hone or touch up ,,, paste may do it , but maybe not tc

Rust is very abrasive, if you got rust on your strop you just pasted your strop, except the grit size is random, not good.
Depending on why the blade rusted, if from moisture more than likely the edge was the first thing to rust.

Get some magnification and look at the edge, if it is mild rust, you may be able to polish it off, with some metal polish stropping on a piece of cardboard or paper, then strop on Chrome Oxide. If the edge is eaten by rust and pitted at the edge or the bevel is scratched and chipping at the edge, it will need a full bevel reset, to build a new bevel and edge.

First step, look at the edge.

I know this comes after the fact and you are asking what to do to achieve an edge.. and I cant give better advice than what was given. Except to suggest what I do to protect my razors.
Its been such a wet year and humid too. I have a large mason jar that I have a handful of silica gel packets at the bottom.. After drying my blade well with a hair dryer, I put my razor in there and tighten the cap. It was a great investment! Very happy I started doing that and it gives me great peace of mind.
Hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to get a close look at it and start with the least abrasive option and work my way up. Then I am most definitely going to make sure I have a dryer system in place when It is back in action.

Wipe your strop with a dry, clean, white paper towel, see what comes off.