My belt sander got a workout...

This razor is a 5/8 Wade & Butcher that I sanded to a 400-grit satin finish and then treated with liquid gun bluing.

The scales are bubinga wood finished with Tung Oil. The pins and spacer are brass.

It came out pretty well for my first power sanding job. I don't have my high-grit belts yet, so I had to finish the sanding by hand.

The bluing is a little uneven for some reason, even though I immersed the blade in the liquid. :shrug: And the blade is slightly off center; not sure whether I could have changed that or not. The tang seemed slightly off center before I pinned the razor... :thinking:

The belt sander makes this whole process much simpler. I find I can more accurately shape the scales because the sander removes material evenly and at a predictable rate. Fun! :)

Josh

Nice work, Josh! That bubinga really has a nice grain. How do you like the tung oil as opposed to the CA? I really don't think the belt sander is going to help that much at the higher grits. Those go pretty smoothly by hand and don't take that long. What it's really good at is removing material.

Jim,

By higher grits, I actually just mean over 120 grit. :) Bill Ellis uses 400 and above for rounding and smoothing the edges. The 120-grit belt can get away from me sometimes.

Josh

Nice work Josh :tu

I'm kinda curious to see how the blued blade is received. It's different looking, and I'm not sure I like it quite as much as I thought I might. :shrug:

Josh

Nicely done! I like the blue, as something a little different.

Nice work Josh!! Looks sweet :D

Beatiful grain and shaping, nice scales. The blade looks cool.
Would you elaborate on the bluing process? I think that I want to try it.
Charlie

Charlie,

I bought some liquid gun bluing at a sporting goods store. You clean the steel with steel wool, then apply the bluing with a q-tip or small paint brush. Since this blade was unpinned, I actually just dunked it in the bottle for a minute.

You rinse it off, then polish it with steel wool. Repeat a few times to get the finish as even as possible.

That's all there is to it. :)

Josh

Josh,
Gotta say I really like the blued steel with the color of the wood (I even like the color of the pins on the wood with the steel). Nice job. The grain is so rich in the bubinga. Very cool.

Nice! The blued (???) blade makes the grain pop. The blade looks very stealthy! (Str8 shaving while under cover?)

Very nice!

:tu

Nah, you need olive drab scales for that. :D

Josh

Would you be taping that spine to hone it? Don't know if I skipped over that info... long day and the brain is not full connected anylonger...

I like the way this one turned out, it's got me thinking about the same thing with my manzanita scales :D

Very nice work Josh.

Good Stuff.

Looks like you're having some fun now. :y

Lynn

Thanks, Lynn. I am. :)

I got my extra belts from Lee Valley yesterday--220 through 9 microns. After my initial test, I think I agree with Jim that they don't make for idiot-proof finishing. They leave a very smooth surface but the edges tend to gouge the wood, making it hard to get an even finish. I'm hoping more practice will lessen this, but I think some hand-sanding will always be a part of the process.

I've always wanted to get more into woodworking, and scales make a nice little project that's relatively quick from start to finish. Instant gratification rocks. :)

Josh