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Hey all!
I am curious to know what technique y'all use to get that real nice mirror finish on a blade?
I had an old Bengall that I sanded by handed from around 200 grit right down to 2000 grit but it took forever.
Surely there are some faster and more efficient ways?
Hey Andrew, have done a few with a dremel. It takes a deft hand but saves a lot of time. You have to be careful though not to pick up the edge and trash the whole razor.
I use a jeweler's lathe with 3M bristle discs.
Just remember faster is not always better. A good thing is worth the wait. You may have put in a lot of hours but with a dremel all can be lost in the blink of an eye.
Well, not starting with 200 grit helps, seriously restoration begins at purchase. Buy the best razors you can afford and start sanding at 600, your scratches are easy to remove, deep 200 grit scratches are hard to remove.
You can go to buffing, with greasless, but it is dangerous and there is a large learning curve, you can easily ruin a razor.
In the words of Glen, "rush a restore and ruin a blade" There are combination methods that seem to work well for me for doing restorations. I do not often go for the mirror finish though. I hand sand a lot, I use the vibratory tumbler and I use a buffer. The buffer sees much less of the process than the other two methods. It is very easy to round out all the lines and edges on a razor with a buffer. Perhaps buy a lot of junkers to practice with.
Yea, I find myself hand sanding more and buffing less, more for final finish than with greasless.
Good paper and good hard backer makes a big difference. Cut into small strips and change often, use oil at the higher grits.
You really do need to make a plan... before you begin.
Cheers lads.
The finish is very nice on the Bengall. Some of the deeper pitting remains but nice nonetheless.
I go to 5k then autosol etc
20 plus hours for hand sanding a bad blade seams normal now.
but damn the greaseless works so much quicker but has the potential to chew the steel out at any divots so a compromise has to be made quality for speed
Good on ya for working the sandpaper. It is hard work on the fingers but can preserve the angles and contours of the razor. Greaseless compound is fast but tends to round everything out and leaves the metal looking "soft". CrOx or jewelers paste on the buffing wheel is less aggressive and nicely follows the 2000 grit sandpaper with less risk of rounding out the corners and angles.Quote:
Originally Posted by Substance
When restoring a hollow grind I use wet dry paper, and always sand wet. As mentioned above, starting at 600 grit saves a lot of time!! The key for me is to take my time and do an easy progression:
600-800-1000-1200-1500-2000-Flitz on microfiber
This makes a nice mirror finish, and saves the angles and most markings.
If I am working on nice thick blade like a vintage wedge, then I will use power buffing because I don't have to worry about grinding through the thin edge. I will still usually hand sand the rust and severe corrosion before attacking it with a grinder.
This is a fascinating thread !!....I can't add much Andrew, except that each razor is different
and each restore strategy "has to be reset to zero", at least in my experience.
This means (to me) a varying game-plan but you can't go wrong with a proper clean up
initially to see what you have and how to proceed.
As always, before pics are essential if you want advice on a particular blade.
Sounds too vague ?....Yep !!.... and I make no apologies for being so ;)
I try to keep things simple, so I usually go for a full Micro Mesh treatment, nowadays the final polish tends to be newspaper - also on non-mirror finishes, which tend to be the majority of my polishing jobs. Gives a great final polish shine.
when you guys hand sand, do you go heal to toe? I've been trying to learn to greaseless buff going spine to edge, but I find it very difficult not to do one of 2 things.
Either I can't reach the center of the hollow grind with 4 inch wheels, or I round over the hone wear portion on the spine, and it looks terrible... or of course the dreaded chewing up of the edge in spots.
When I hand sand I go heal to toe, and its also much easier to do that with grease less, but I am continually being told this is wrong... also when going heal to toe, its hard to get it good right at the plunge line/choil area, where the grind meets the shoulder