Thread: Nice to meet yall, starting to restore razors.

Honing with one hand takes a little getting used to. I'm still not proficient with it with the stone on the bench. I am still transitioning from palming the hone.

When I started I saw a video of a professional honer (I don't remember who, but not anyone I've seen mentioned here) that I picked up my technique from. I think it lines up with the many ways to do things. And it seems to work for me on blades with good geometry. So, now it's time to learn new things. As sometime said, different blades may require different techniques.

But most of my honing are small pocket knives. Those generally are small and curved. So, they get a very similar motion and with one hand.

As for the palming the stone, I made a joke earlier about getting my hands to shake in sync. While that was a bit extreme, I really don't think I could apply even pressure with a constant bevel angle. I suppose the theory is that you can't add to much pressure if you are holding both, but if the stone ain't steady it's not going to go well. Especially if it is twisting.

I know any mention of knives seems to make yall cringe, but it's what I've got as a starting point. But, honing my razor made me a better knife sharpener. And what I really don't understand is that yall have hundreds of dollars worth of stones, do yall not sharpen your knives? I'm not trying to be rude, it just never occurred to me that any of yall had a chef knife that wouldn't shave arms.

That reaction normally stems out of people saying, " I've got a handle on honing razors because I've got a lot of experience sharpening knives," when in fact the two are vastly different. Honestly in a lot of ways I think honing razors is easier but that of course is kicking a hornet's nest also.
By the way, I can sharpen my butcher and chef's knives to where they will shave arm hair but that is a far cry from being able to shave with one which is pretty much not even feasible because of their geometry.

Mr flus, now that makes sense. I can also see that it's complicated in this format to communicate nuance. I know I have trouble finding a balance between knowing something and arrogance. But, as a hobbiest, there will always be more for me to learn and improvement to make. I mean you can say that about the pros, also, but moreso for me.

I'm going for a shave as comfortable as a DE with the closeness of a straight. I haven't tried to understand the difference between closeness and keenness, and other things in the honing threads. I may get there one day, but what I have to learn to restore the things is already way more than I thought before .

On a different note, I went shopping at the inlaw's place and have some neatsfoot oil and what may be a dremmel drill press. It looks like a jig saw, but I think you can rotate it into a drill press. I gotta play with it and see.

OK Yall, I've got the one that is a "Clauss" and on the blade it says "The Magnetic Razor". And it really is magnetic. It looks like it is from somewhere around the early 1900s.

It has a smokey black finish. So far I have just rubbed it with 3M Marine Polish. I am afraid if I sand it I will lose the smokey finish, which I don't think I want to do. But, there is a bit of corrosion right on the edge. It is only on one side, so I think it may hone away enough to get a clean edge. It is not rough, mostly just discolored. I think it is about a 6/8" blade, maybe a bit more.

So, my thought it to just use the waxy polish stuff that I rub on leather and buff (black, brown, white, green, red, and blue). And then do some sanding on the tang and the spine so you get some shiney metal to contrast the smokey blade.

But, not sure what yall think. How would you handle it?

Thanks.

Looks like the plating has come off. Yes....some of the Clauss razors were plated. I might be wrong about yours, but I have a few..

Originally Posted by outback

Looks like the plating has come off. Yes....some of the Clauss razors were plated. I might be wrong about yours, but I have a few..

It is hard to get a good picture of it, but it's just kind of a dull gray. And it is definately scatched up. But I can see where you are coming from.

So, I don't have a setup to do any plating. And I'm not sure how deep it goes. So I don't wasn't too just start sanding away and ruin the blade. Maybe I could just polish it up and maybe some day look into playing it? It may not win any prizes, but I think it may look OK and won't ruin it.

As I was looking into it, I've seen some of this brand being sold for a lot of money. So I'm really hesitant to ruin it. Of course, there are so many factors in value on these things, I may have a nova and the ones i saw were corvettes.

Steel wool and 3M, usually do the trick to clean them up to a presentable state.





Just keep rubbing, it should shine up.

Lots of rubbing with steel wool and 3M, followed with 3M on a rag, should get it looking pretty good.

For instance...the Clauss in the top of this pic.


Used to look like this, before the 3M



I have no idea why it posted both, the first one was deleted.

Thanks Outback. That's funny, it is pretty much the same razor. My blade was in better shape, so I should be able to get better than yours. OK, now that we've had a good laugh...I think I need to spend more time with the 3M, generally.

I haven't really started reading about scales yet, but you got those looking new.

Thanks again.