Thread: Cleaning collars

I am currently working on cleaning up this old girl. Going really easy and doing a light restoration. Not taking her apart. Cleaning up has been really simple so far. Just looking for the easiest way to clean up the collars around the pins now. It is difficult to sand without sanding the scales at the same time. Any techniques I should know?

Nice find!!
Use of a good polish by hand with a soft cloth will do and for the scale too.
That said, If you make a mask of heavy tape with holes the size of the collar it will allow the use of more abrasive measures. A hole of that size punched into a piece of tin can can work quite well, using a Dremel or abrasive sponge.
I've used all the above and choose the right one for each job.
Enjoy!
~Richard

The first thing I do, is hose the razor down with WD40, it will not harm the horn scales, squirt some between the scales and give it a few minutes to loosen the crud. Clean with a 000-steel wool wrapped wooden coffee stir stick.

WD40 and steel wool will clean the collars and pin, smooth, and buff the scales. They can be dyed with leather or shoe dye or touched up with a sharpie.

As advised, a mask, hole punched in a tin can or piece of a plastic milk bottle will protect the scales, as you buff with a Dremel cloth wheel or felt drum and Chrome Oxide or good Metal Polish.

A 1 inch, Dremel Radial Spiral polishing wheel will remove all the rust between the scales at the pivot and around the pin. They are inexpensive, super tough and come in grits. I use just course and fine, then polish with metal polish. Though the “kits” are inexpensive, 10-15 bucks.

EBay sells knock off’s that work well, though the color and grit rating may be different.

You will be surprised how well WD40 and 000 steel wool will work.

Thanks. I soaked the razor/scales in neats foot oil and while still covered in oil used some w/d sandpaper and floss pick to get most of the rust off blade and in around the pivot. I probably won't go the dremel route and won't really be polishing. I just want to remove rust and gunk. This razor is in great condition and other than cleaned and rust free and honed won't look too much different than it does. The scales will look shinier though. I will try the steel wool. I did this in the past and still have some.

Yup, neatsfoot works, I have soaked razors for months, forgot about them with no harm. I keep a heavy-duty freezer Zip-lock bag in a covered glass Pyrex container, filled about 1/3 with neatsfoot and just drop them in.

A razor blade will cut off a lot of the rust around the pin and get under the scales a bit, the coffee stir stick with steel wool will get polish a bit and get between the scales, just takes a little time. On wide tang razors a couple stick wrapped with steel wool or a whittled chop stick works between the scales at the pivot.

I stay away from the fiberglass pens, but they do work, just are literally a pain to use, it gets everywhere.

Once the collars are clean, good metal polish will shine them up, though you may not want that look.

See post # 5 of this thread; I myself, would not go near that old razor with a Dremel.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...et-scales.html

She is pretty clean now. I even honed her up and got an awsome shave tonight. Back to the neats foot oil for another day or two. Now I need to decide if I want to clean a little more or leave looking her age. Collars aren't perfect clean, but no real rust, blade looks almost like it does in the pic. I guess those are original grind marks I don't want to loose that and it is shaving great so the blade is done. I guess I may need to use the hand polish with a soft cloth on the scales and pins and call her done. Once you go to far you can't go back. I will post pics in a few days and see what others think.

With an older blade you should really start with the least aggressive methods first and see where that gets you. Depending on the material, a little polish on a rag will usually clean collars up pretty well. It's interesting that you asked for advice, got several suggestions, and did something completely different.

With a blade like this you really need to figure out an overal restoration goal. If you want to keep the patina on the blade, don't touch any parts of it with sand paper or other abrasives. Just use oil and steel wool to remove the active rust. If you don't want everything shiny and new looking, you don't want the collars shiny and new looking. Shiny new looking collars will look out of place on a patinaed blade with gracefully aged scales.

If that were my razor I would probably give the scales a good soak and remove all of the rust with steel wool. Then I'd hand polish the collars(but not the blade) and call it good.

I did use the advise. Made a tape mask and lightly sanded the collars to remove the rust. I did lightly sand the rust off the blade with 1000 grit wet dry while coverd in oil. You really can't tell and ot left the patina.

So this is where she is at. I am stopping here. What do you think, good place to stop?