Thread: Handsanding howto

My bad

This is me zipping it

I've got a small question on bringing the blade to a mirror finish. Will I be able to do this using sand paper, Maas, and elbow grease, or will I need some sort of other tool to buff the blade?

You can do it completely by hand, but then you best handsand to as high a grit as possible.
You can get sandpaper up to 2000 grit, and then there are the micro mesh pads that go up to several tens of thousands of grit.

Using that, you can do it by hand.
But personally I use a dremel with a felt wheel at 7000 rpm with chromium oxide compound.
after the 2000 grit stage it takes me only half an hour to put a nice mirror polish on a blade.

Thank you very much. I think I need to find myself a good dremel for a good price. Any suggestions on dremel and accessories I would need for restoring a razor?

Originally Posted by burningdarkness

Thank you very much. I think I need to find myself a good dremel for a good price. Any suggestions on dremel and accessories I would need for restoring a razor?

Insert warning here:

Make sure you practice the Dremel techniques on a razor of no value hmmm a Zeepk would be good here.... Dremels will snap a hollow ground blade faster than you have ever seen, if you make one small error.... The wheel must always be spinning away from the edge, never ever toward it, the heel and toe are also danger areas as the wheel can wrap around them rather quickly... Always, always, wear safety glasses....
Just when you start thinking you know what you're doing with one, is when the trouble starts ....
I would move from a Zeepk, to a full heavy wedge, and finally try it on a real hollow ground razor.... JMHO here of course...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Insert warning here:

Make sure you practice the Dremel techniques on a razor of no value hmmm a Zeepk would be good here.... Dremels will snap a hollow ground blade faster than you have ever seen, if you make one small error.... The wheel must always be spinning away from the edge, never ever toward it, the heel and toe are also danger areas as the wheel can wrap around them rather quickly... Always, always, wear safety glasses....
Just when you start thinking you know what you're doing with one, is when the trouble starts ....
I would move from a Zeepk, to a full heavy wedge, and finally try it on a real hollow ground razor.... JMHO here of course...

Thanks much. I actually picked up a copy of Bill Ellis' straight razor restoration DVD and I've been working through that. I've got safety glasses and a respirator - better safe than sorry.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Dremels will snap a hollow ground blade faster than you have ever seen, if you make one small error.... The wheel must always be spinning away from the edge, never ever toward it, the heel and toe are also danger areas as the wheel can wrap around them rather quickly... Always, always, wear safety glasses....

I finished my first blade restore and it was a full hollow...i followed your advice but i also wore a thick leather jacket, leather gloves, and a paintball mask incase the blade snapped and SHTF...LUCKILY i made it though that with out a problem but then i got careless and sliced the side of my index finger while wiping it down

anyway this thread was VERY helpful thank you to every one who contributed their 2cents...it added up to a million bucks :-)

I am a newbie to the straight razor craft and would like to clean up / polish my razors. I worked in environmental labs for years and had to to polish stainless steel parts on Mass Spectrometers. Our source for aluminum oxide powder and abrasive papers up to 2000 grit was Scientific Instrument Services. There web site is www.sisweb.com (hopefully this gets you to directly to their website - I'm pretty much a rookie getting around in forums as well). The abrasives are in the Cleaning section of the "Supplies by Category".

Some of the Mass Spec. parts required a mirror finish and the 2000 paper was my best route to go. They didn't have the micro pads at that time. I don't know if you can use there abrasive papers wet - I never did; usually soaked parts in water then sonicated in acetone to remove all water. If one of our expert members can check this out it might become a valuable source for these products. If it already is a source kindly disregard.

Jim

How can you tell when your really at the point where you should move up in grit ?

Obviously I have found myself doing this

I move up when ALL the pits and rust that I want out are gone