how do you guys restore?

I often just give them a good deep polishing now and let them be. And I know a lot is on the condition of the razor and how deep the pitting/stains, stamping and etching is. But a few I would like to get to perfect on them like you guys do. I used to start with a rough abrasion to make quick progress of getting deeper. But those deep scratches left seem nearly impossible to get rid of. And I saw one person here say they start at a 600 and work up because then the scratches are nice and easy to remove. And I agree with that, there's hardly any scratching, but it seems like it's not even really making progress on the pitting and stains(helps set a nice foundation for a finish mind you) let alone how quickly the sandpaper wears away without much progress (the metal black kind of sanding paper not the brown wood kind, although I seem to think the wood intended paper works quite well on steel as well.). Any thing special you guys do, or is it literally just going to take me hours upon hours of hand sanding? I'm guessing days upon days of non stop sanding to be honest, and countless pieces of sandpaper. And I've done this a few times before. But just wondering if there is a better way. It gets mundane some times making so slow of progress.

I do all work by hand. If necessary I unpin the razor. First I clean the blade with CLR and a brass brush to remove rust and grime. Next I sand starting with 400 grit and WD-40. I wrap the sand paper around a wine cork. Work my way up to 2500 grit and finish with mothers polish. I remove as much pitting as possible without removing too much metal. If scales are horn I soak in neetsfoot oil. Fill any bug bites with Superglue, sand and polish. Re pin the razor and hone.

I've spent years learning to restore my razors, to deciding the shape of the scales, the material to be used, and finally, what type of polish I'd like on the blade - all key factors in determining the, "planning phase", before one gets ready for the hard part of the actual work.

And that is this, getting the razor packaged up correctly - this is key.

Ensuring that the person who is going to restore your razor, has in fact agreed to do it, and given you the proper address.

Next, a difficult and key part - getting it to the post office, and properly sent off with tracking.

And finally, awaiting it's arrival at it's destination and the, what I call, "the confirmation notice" - this phase can now be properly concluded.

Then, one simply waits for an email from "The Restorer", and a couple of days later, a spankingly awesome, wonderfully restored razor just shows up in your mailbox.

It's like ferkin' magic....but takes time to learn correctly.

Hope this helps, and I'm just passing on the great knowledge and skill that was given freely to me when I joined....good luck....;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Phrank

I've spent years learning to restore my razors, to deciding the shape of the scales, the material to be used, and finally, what type of polish I'd like on the blade - all key factors in determining the, "planning phase", before one gets ready for the hard part of the actual work.

And that is this, getting the razor packaged up correctly - this is key.

Ensuring that the person who is going to restore your razor, has in fact agreed to do it, and given you the proper address.

Next, a difficult and key part - getting it to the post office, and properly sent off with tracking.

And finally, awaiting it's arrival at it's destination and the, what I call, "the confirmation notice" - this phase can now be properly concluded.

Then, one simply waits for an email from "The Restorer", and a couple of days later, a spankingly awesome, wonderfully restored razor just shows up in your mailbox.

It's like ferkin' magic....but takes time to learn correctly.

Hope this helps, and I'm just passing on the great knowledge and skill that was given freely to me when I joined....good luck....;)

---

Haha my lord. Invaluable knowledge right there. And I agree, possibly the best way to do it.lol
I enjoy restoring and cleaning them up tho. I'm a very creative individual. I enjoy putting my own touch to everything and I love the idea of creating things that may be here on earth long after I am gone. Plus I'm not in the situation currently to be able to send them off. But I imagine one day in the future I'll be able to send away a few special ones to me, I have acquired over the years and would like professionally restored to their former factory (or as close to as you can get) glory.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bouschie

I do all work by hand. If necessary I unpin the razor. First I clean the blade with CLR and a brass brush to remove rust and grime. Next I sand starting with 400 grit and WD-40. I wrap the sand paper around a wine cork. Work my way up to 2500 grit and finish with mothers polish. I remove as much pitting as possible without removing too much metal. If scales are horn I soak in neetsfoot oil. Fill any bug bites with Superglue, sand and polish. Re pin the razor and hone.

---

Good idea with the cork. And I usually just 'pinch' it with sandpaper covering both sides, and rub and rub... I learned quickly to keep even pressure on either side of hollow grounds. I single fingered one one day and broke it. Taught me real quick from that.

What do you polish the scales with? The mothers as well? I often use a Dremel with a buffing pad and Puma blade polish (was closest for me to buy) and I'm fairly impressed with it. But it often will burn and melt the scale material. I found baby oil on some toilet paper or cotton bandage works well.

I use a buffer

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mainaman

I use a buffer

---

There you have it OP, you see, that's "Advanced"...not even close to there yet....:D

It depends a lot on what I am working on. Full hollows razors are already so thin it is difficult to do much sanding without making them too thin. Heavy wedge will withstand a lot of sanding, but you have to be careful not to wobble the grind or you bevel line will be all wavy. It does take a long time to get the previous grits sanding scratches out. Sometimes I will sand, then go to the bench buffer, then sand some more and then back to the bench buffer and then hand polish. It takes very little contamination on your polish cloth to mess up a high gloss polish. I mostly scrape any gunk and active rust with WD-40 and a razor blade, then give it a good clean with steel wool and WD-40 and then decide what is next. I recently sent a blade out for a regrind, it seemed like the most sensible solution for that blade. Not all blades need that, in fact of all the blades that have had passed through or hang out as long term residents, this is the first one I have done that with. I have become more minimalist on most of the work I do. Sometimes on the older blades, after I get them all shiny, I then darken the steel to make them look old again, just rust free.

Alright, and yea I guess getting it reground is a good idea if you want it flawless and the material will allow for it. Good thinking. Cause I do like to try to get them looking brand spankiñ new without a single blemish. But just seems nearly impossible on alot of them. I suppose this is mostly just the condition of the razor I'm working on tho. And yea I don't even have a bench grinder yet, so I'm stuck with a little Dremel for now. Works just as good I think, just a bit more time consuming.lol I work with what I have, bû I'm sure in time I will acquire all I need to make thins more efficient. Current tool list I use for all projects, blades and scales is a normal belt sander, standard drill press, Dremel, scroll saw, although I rarely use it, palm sander, and router.. than all the hand tools of course, sand paper, peening hammer, files etc.

Oh and miter, scroll, and jig saw. But those are mostly for my furniture building.

But I'm looking forward to a lathe, table saw, bench grinders, anvil etc. In the near future

I use the Mothers on blades. Scales (bone, horn, ivory, celluloid) it does to all. Sand well finishing with high grit 1000 or higher then polish with Mother's. If you are not careful with the Dremel tool can over heat the scales or do other damage.

I am lazy when it comes to restores. I use only mothers metal polish if I can, but if not I use dremel. Dremel I have this buffing paste that gives decent satin finish. I keep it on low though and hold blade with hand so I know it is not getting to hot. Did some hand sanding before but I don't think it is worth time unless it is very nice razor, then it might just be worth sending it off. Scales I will only touch with mothers or 1k sand paper

Also I am restore newb

I usually restore with a lot of patience.

I don't have that many tools and I mostly limit myself to cleaning the razor and it's scales, in between the pins and washers, get the rust out, and oil it.
If the blade itself is not that bad, I leave it as is.
I usually adjust the pinning to make the blade a little tighter and perfectly centered. Can't stand loose sitting blades, especially when stropping.
And then I just hone 'em up.

I'm not the guy to get a mirror finish on my blades, I usually like them with a bit of character, unless if it's real rust or serious pitting, that I gotta remove, otherwise I leave it

Sometimes I take a piece of the heel / stabilizer off if necessary and hone out chips (the bigger ones are a PITA and take plenty of time since I don't have very low grit stones)

Not to hijack the thread, but does anyone has a good source to buy scales from, preferably in the European area? Pre-drilled would be awesome, without a drill press, I find it sometimes a little tedious and erroneous to do it by hand myself, I'm not that good at working "straight" I've noticed.

Scales are easily wet sanded, 1 or 2k wet/dry sand paper no need to bear down. Make sure you have a nice even dull look to them then Mothers or like product on a microfiber towel and buff. Go to a clean part of the towel and repeat until you have a shinny piece of plastic. Dremels are handy but more stuff gets destroyed than gets done. These blades are so thin it doesn't take much stress to break one. I just did a razor from break down to sanding to polish and fixing warped scales and honing I bet there is 3 hours in it. Is it perfect? No, there was pits from water spots. Does it look 1 hell of a lot better? Yes and all of it was done by hand.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ejmolitor37

Scales are easily wet sanded, 1 or 2k wet/dry sand paper no need to bear down. Make sure you have a nice even dull look to them then Mothers or like product on a microfiber towel and buff. Go to a clean part of the towel and repeat until you have a shinny piece of plastic. Dremels are handy but more stuff gets destroyed than gets done. These blades are so thin it doesn't take much stress to break one. I just did a razor from break down to sanding to polish and fixing warped scales and honing I bet there is 3 hours in it. Is it perfect? No, there was pits from water spots. Does it look 1 hell of a lot better? Yes and all of it was done by hand.

---

Too go from unpinning to finished takes me 5 or 6 hours. And thats not removing pitting. Just knocking them down a bit and trying to get the staining off. Honing take about a third of the time for me as I'm slow. Wet sand the scales to clean and then polish them. Sand blade by hand with 400 to 600 to see whats what. Then maybe to the buffer for a bit to get a good start on the sanding. Then back to hand sanding and polish. Pinning takes 20 to 30 minutes for me too. As I'm trying to do the best I can and it just takes time.

Its a slow process. If major work is needed like new scales, that alone will take me 4 hours. And that not talking a CA finish. Just cutting shaping and sanding then polish.

I was pretty fortunate last night Jerry :) the blade didn't need much. Sanded with 2k then 3k the polished with mothers. Same for scales after fixing warps. No blade corrections which was nice and bevel took quick and easy. Have not had one like that in awhile ;)

I used to want to do full restoration with custom scales, but without a decent place to work that is a huge pain. Now I just try to clean the up a bit and polish them as needed. After cracking some nice scales and destroying some decorative washers trying to take them apart I'm not in as big a hurry to do that stuff now.
Also, I'm trying to buy razors that don't need a ton of work!

I get lucky like that now and then. Not often as i buy at a low cost. Although that might not have nothing to do with it. I try and save everything i can but sometimes it just dont work out well. Think i got 3 hrs in the one im working on now. Still needs pinning and honing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Phrank

I've spent years learning to restore my razors, to deciding the shape of the scales, the material to be used, and finally, what type of polish I'd like on the blade - all key factors in determining the, "planning phase", before one gets ready for the hard part of the actual work.

And that is this, getting the razor packaged up correctly - this is key.

Ensuring that the person who is going to restore your razor, has in fact agreed to do it, and given you the proper address.

Next, a difficult and key part - getting it to the post office, and properly sent off with tracking.

And finally, awaiting it's arrival at it's destination and the, what I call, "the confirmation notice" - this phase can now be properly concluded.

Then, one simply waits for an email from "The Restorer", and a couple of days later, a spankingly awesome, wonderfully restored razor just shows up in your mailbox.

It's like ferkin' magic....but takes time to learn correctly.

Hope this helps, and I'm just passing on the great knowledge and skill that was given freely to me when I joined....good luck....;)

---

Abridged version
Step 1: Call gssixgun (or other trusted SR restorer) ;)

I've spent days n weeks, restoring some razors. It depends on the razors condition, and how much metal can be removed without compromising the blades integrity.

Patience is a virtue....good things come to those who wait.
Something I've lived by my whole life.
Some days your the bug...other days your the windshield.

There's quite a few weeks put into this one.
Attachment 277055
Attachment 277056
All work by hand, but I used the dremmel to do the final finish on the blade.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by outback

I've spent days n weeks, restoring some razors. It depends on the razors condition, and how much metal can be removed without compromising the blades integrity.

Patience is a virtue....good things come to those who wait.
Something I've lived by my whole life.
Some days your the bug...other days your the windshield.

There's quite a few weeks put into this one.
All work by hand, but I used the dremmel to do the final finish on the blade.

---

Turned out quite well. Beautiful razor.

I teach middle school, so I have access to the middle school tech shop. I just started trying the tricky stuff like making scales and repinning. I mostly do everything by hand when it comes to blades. I had a dremel tool slip and chip a blade, so hand sanding and polishing is the way to go for me.

Major pitting will either require a lot of time if done by hand, or a lot of buffing wheels and compounds if you're looking to save time. Or, you could try a combination of both. When I decided to try my hand at a restoration, I didn't really want to invest in the buffing machine, wheels, and various compounds. And, I read an article in the wiki that talked about both methods and came to the conclusion that hand sanding, though more time consuming, would perhaps give me better results. Tuzi has a great write up on one of his restoration projects, and I think he had something like 20 hours into sanding just at the 150 level! BUT the final result speaks entirely for itself.

I could speed things up with a buffer, and let's be honest, who doesn't like power tools? Nonetheless, there is a certain satisfaction that comes along with hand-sanding and finishing a blade. I figure that a blade that has been around for a century or so is deserving of a little extra time. And keeping a few indicators of that time past can be a good thing too.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MrZ

I teach middle school, so I have access to the middle school tech shop. I just started trying the tricky stuff like making scales and repinning. I mostly do everything by hand when it comes to blades. I had a dremel tool slip and chip a blade, so hand sanding and polishing is the way to go for me.

---

Yea, I have quickly learned which way to use the Dremel on them as well. Ran it the wrong way on a king cutter one day and snagged the point, shattered it half way down. Used too much pressure on just one side one day hand sanding, cracked the blade. Learned to "pinch" the blade with even pressure while hand sanding. And have shattered one trying to bend it straight one day. Learned to not try to bend them straight.