Thread: To Unpin or Not to Unpin, That is My Question

There's a right way and a wrong way and if you don't take em out you'll never really clean them out and it will look it.

If you got the skill and tools just do it.

If there is no rust between the scales and you could not tell when done whether they were unpinned or not then leave them. On the other hand, the pins themselves are not really the thing that's usually best left intact, it's the collars. If you can unpin without losing or damaging them or, as in my case, have them soaking in a shot glass and have the wife toss them down the sink, then repinning using the same collars is a non-issue. That is of course if you are proficient at pinning.

If crud under the scales is what you are concerned about you can use dental floss and 3M Marine to clean around the pivot. I also use a fingernail brush and plain old soap and water to clean in between the scales.

Some light paste polish, an old toothbrush, Q-tips smashed flat with a hammer......Dental floss. Rinse and brush. Hair drier and look.
Go again if necessary.
Don't ruin anything nice. Get some junkers to practice with.

Some things on unpinning and pinning in the stickies way up top on this subforum.

Thanks all - good advice on both sides.

I'll look through the sticky posts and see if that helps any.

I appreciate all of the answers!

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

If there is no rust between the scales and you could not tell when done whether they were unpinned or not then leave them. On the other hand, the pins themselves are not really the thing that's usually best left intact, it's the collars. If you can unpin without losing or damaging them or, as in my case, have them soaking in a shot glass and have the wife toss them down the sink, then repinning using the same collars is a non-issue. That is of course if you are proficient at pinning.

If crud under the scales is what you are concerned about you can use dental floss and 3M Marine to clean around the pivot. I also use a fingernail brush and plain old soap and water to clean in between the scales.

I have had very little luck saving collars, but I'm going to look through all of the pinned posts and see if there are better methods than I've been using so far.

Thanks!

Well when I say collars largely what I am referring to are the dome collars or beehive collars. The small ring collars often can't be saved. I still try to save them if I can but I'd rather replace.them.with ones that will look nice than reuse ones that are damaged. A big portion of it is removing them surgically rather than grinding them down to the scale but often even then they have been squashed or split during the pinning process.

The dome, beehive and other ornamental ones I always try to save.

Saving the collars takes practice. This is why you should start with junkers or razors that you don't care if you destroy the collars or scales. As unpinning can be tough to do cleanly. I use a drill press and centering bits. A device to hold scales, magnification, and a bright light. But that's what I need to do the job. Not everyone has to go that far. I try and reuse all collars. Even just the tiny cups as they can be saved and reused too.
Here is a tip for ya. Polish the collars before unpinning. This saves you a lot of work trying to hold the tiny little bastards for cleaning when they are loose.

Collars can be easily made at home and there should be threads about that on here. Also you can buy replacement collars, even fancy ones, on oboy.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

Collars can be easily made at home and there should be threads about that on here. Also you can buy replacement collars, even fancy ones, on oboy.

Bob

This has been my solution so far.

A large part of me thinks that all of the fuss of saving collars and stuff is a bit unnecessary, since I can buy very similar replacements online...

But another part of me is a big snob that wants as much of my razors as possible to be original parts.

I'm just figuring out the cost/benefit analysis of which part is worth listening to...

Originally Posted by Gasman

Saving the collars takes practice. This is why you should start with junkers or razors that you don't care if you destroy the collars or scales. As unpinning can be tough to do cleanly. I use a drill press and centering bits. A device to hold scales, magnification, and a bright light. But that's what I need to do the job. Not everyone has to go that far. I try and reuse all collars. Even just the tiny cups as they can be saved and reused too.
Here is a tip for ya. Polish the collars before unpinning. This saves you a lot of work trying to hold the tiny little bastards for cleaning when they are loose.

Can you post a picture of the device you use for holding them? This has been one of my biggest problems with restoration.

To date I've mostly ground off my pins and replaced the collars with domed washers I got from some fellow on Ebay (I don't remember who, but I think I got the name on this forum, so...)