Thread: Packwood Adulterated.....

Ok.
Normally, I would not do this to a Packwood razor, since they are an 1800's make, however, receiving from eBay (I knew it was in this condition from the start), it had already been molested, adulterated, and worked over....not to mention in bad shape Someone in the history of this razor had reground the blade to a square tip, full hollow design. Which made the blade much smaller than they usually are; reduced the spine height (they usually have a tall/diamond spine). Poorly ground a thumb rest into the underside of the tang (the half circle was not a clean line, but a shakey grind-job). Also, the backside scale was cracked above the bottom pin, but, instead of being cracked clean through it as cracked and split along the scale....

Now, anyone familiar with Packwood razors have seen that they usually come with more of a wedge blade that rounds at the spine up to a 'diamond' spine. The tips are often more of a spanish point and the scales are almost always horn (I've never seen other wise).

SO, figuring that someone has already given this one the once over, and left it in pretty bad condition....it's free game, right?

I bought some small grind wheels for the ol' Dremel, pulled out the small metal files that I had from a past relative whom was a blacksmiths apprentice at one point (He's long dead now, so, he must have been working as one anywhere from the '70's back to the turn of the century....18 to 1900's that is). AND I had at it....

I ground out the tip to a spanish point-ish design. Filed up the nose and spine. Filed up the finger rest on the tail, and cleaned up the poorly ground out thumb rest someone put in previously, and put some small file work on that. Ground out/sanded the rust and blade.....

As for the scales, that was where most of the work was! I wanted to slap this blade on another set of pressed horn scales that are in great condition, however, the wife talked me into keeping everything original (sort of), so I worked on these crappy horn scales. I had to scrape off all the gunk that was between/crusted into the design in the pressed horn. Scrape off the dead horn, glue down the crack and stabilize the horn with T-88 generously slathered inside the scales. Buff out the scratch marks in the scales (looked like someone might had written their name, but could not be read). I also made a pewter end spacer, since this was pinned horn to horn and looked pretty shotty. I removed the original flower-collars, buffed them up, and pinned them back on, but with nickel silver pins, so the center of the flowers are silver (compared to the Brass flowers).

Let me know what you guys think........ Either way, I don't care

Next task....let's see how she likes her new look, and how she will perform!

C utz

Sensational... there's a great deal of satisfaction in saving things that have been beaten up

I share your thought on reverse engineering razors that dont have anything wrong with them to begin with... for re-make projects i tend to look for razors that have busted scales or rust over the etching etc so that regrinding or rescaling is justified...

It would be much easier to find razors that are NOS but then you run the risk of damaging or making worthless a nice collectors item.

Great work mate... nice save.

Greg Frazer

Very nice, Chris! A few questions: what did you buff the pressed horn with; what's T-88; hows that nickel-silver to peen (I got a few rods in the mail recently). BTW, Joe Chandler's got that W&B you sold me. I'll post some pics when it comes back.

Great looking stuff, Chris; your effort really shows in the restoration. I like the filework that you put onto the front of the spine (including the opposite facing one in the tip).

Originally Posted by Kyle76

Very nice, Chris! A few questions: what did you buff the pressed horn with; what's T-88; hows that nickel-silver to peen (I got a few rods in the mail recently). BTW, Joe Chandler's got that W&B you sold me. I'll post some pics when it comes back.

Thanks guys!

The horn I cleaned up with an Xacto knife (the tip that worked best was the rounded tip one). Since the horn is transparent, I held it up to a light to guide me where the junk was. Then I rubbed it down with neatsfoot. And to sand it, I lightly did an over all sanding with 1000, 1500, 2000, 4000, 6000 sand paper. But not very aggressive with any of those grits. I just wanted to hit the highest surfaces (the pattern), not sand down the pattern. Then I added renaissance wax, and buffed the horn with the large fabric wheel on the dremel.

T-88 is an epoxy. You can get it at woodcrafter:
http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=3807

The nickel silver rods seem to be a little harder than the brass to peen over, but not much. Also, I found that the nickel silver rods that I have are a hair wider than the brass one's.....Some collars don't fit it, and most holes need to be drilled a little wider.

I look forward to see Joe's work on that W&B! Actually, I like to see any of joes work with razors

Thanks again guys!
C utz