Thread: New Idea??? Experimentation....

Since I really haven't posted my conclusions on this topic I guess I'll do so now.

This is a great option but it isn't perfect for everyone. Myself, regardless of whether or not my tumbler broke, the results no matter how well it works do not balance out the time it takes. NOTE that this is only MY personal opinion! You can get great results, but I would rather hand sand from 400 up (which is the fastest part of the hand sanding process anyway). If you want to get a blade with nothing but mirror with this process and the blade you start has a lot of pitting, it will take hours of hand sanding before you can use the tumbler to begin with. For me, mirror polish isn't the greatest thing on earth. I think it has its time and place. I also have a lot of blades to work on, for myself and others, so I prefer the relative "speed" of doing the work by hand. I actually have given up on the tumbler as a viable option for myself for good.

Don't think I am downplaying this, because I'm not. I do think that if you don't already have a tumbler and want to do this, it is a good idea to really think it through before laying down the cash. Just remember that if your razor is any less than perfect, it will still take hours of hand work before the 3+ days of waiting for the tumbler to finish polishing. Thanks again to Glen and BT for their spearheading this experiment. Good luck!

Originally Posted by Philadelph

the results no matter how well it works do not balance out the time it takes. NOTE that this is only MY personal opinion!

But the tumbler is working while you can be doing something else. Many folks don't have the large blocs of time for the sandpaper but may have time for a tumbler. I don't know what time is involved in the tumbler because I haven't read every post but I am usually eager to try any method that allows my work to get done without me having to do it (lazy? no no no, efficient!)

I agree. If I was in the business of restoring razors this method would probably be a little too slow for my needs. But I'm not, I'm just a code monkey that likes to pick up interesting little hobbies

THanks for the up front work and out of the box thinking, guys.

I am a wee bit confused...YES! more than usual.
After reading each post twice...I come away with the idea that the walnut with cleaner/polish will do away with most of the scut work sanding. Just work at the bad parts with some 220 for a while to loosen it up and let the blade sit in the tumbler for a day or two.
THEN move on to corn cob with polish to get a mirror shine.
Nothing is ever 100% so there will be differences in all blades.
Keep the scales on. this extends the time in tumbler a lot.

The most recent posts indicate, to me, that sanding up to ~ 400 is needed before tumbling.
What is the consensus? If any????
Best to all.
This is exciting and fun. I love experimentation.
I have no tumbler(s) or media. Yet.

Experience so far has shown that 220 & 320 grit scratches will survive extended lengths of exposure to any combination of walnut media/compounds and corncob media/compounds. So far.

Boiled down, that means if you want a mirror finish, you need to do something to the razor first to get it to 400 equivalent grit. From there:

Walnut Media + Rubbing Compound (Turtle Wax Liquid worked for me) + time will take the razor to an almost mirror finish.

Followed by Corncob Media + Tumbler Liquid (Flitz worked for me) + time will take the razor to mirror finish.

If you had left 220 and 320 grit scratches, they'll be barely visible after the above treatments - meaning it's not **fully** mirror. If you depit the razor and sand (or buff or grind) up through 400 grit sanding, you should have a mirror / blemish free finish.

The extension or continuation of this as an "experiment" is whether we might be able to use some sort of ceramic media and ??? compound to depit and clean up what we're doing by hand with 220 and 320 grit sandpaper....

Does that help?

(PS. I'll post pictures of my Red Imp (hard HARD HARD carbon steel - as in worse case ) to show what I mean by what's left after the treatments....)

I think BT summed it up dead nut in the last post....
My 4th razor is spinning right now, it did not need any sanding or cleaning up so I put it straight in the CC(corn cob) to polish.... I will work on the scales that I am putting it in this week when I have time, and put a completely mirror polished razor together on Sunday.... This works for me, because I will be at work, and teaching class, until Sunday anyway, so it will be polished for me when I get back to it!!!!!!

BT, thank you so much for boiling it down.

Pics..more pics..

I've currently done four razors in the tumbler. There'll be no pictures from me, so you'll have to go on my interpretation. I'm using an RCBS tumbler with Lyman Tuff Nut Walnut media, and Lyman green (Chromium Oxide?)treated Corn Cob media. I've done two razors at one time with no problem. By using nothing less than 400 grit for minor rust and stain removal, I got a mirror finish on two razors. One razor that needed major pre-cleaning had reflective lines in the mirror finish from the 220 grit. This was really only noticeable at certain light angles. The fourth razor had some major pitting and staining going on. It polished up nicely, but unless there was some pre-grinding on my part, which there wasn't, this razor may have been unsalvageable if not for the tumbler. At least now it has some nice scales and will find a new home as someone's shave ready straight. All razors get 48 hours in both walnut and then corn cob. As a yearling newbie, this is my take: The time spent while razors were being tumbler polished was used on complete scale manufacturing for these straights, which to me, means more. I can spend more time creating and practicing on wood scale ideas that I wouldn't have alloted to me otherwise due to the time constraints of major metal restoration. Some guys may like working with metal more. I guess that's why schools have both Metal Shop and Wood Shop.

Byron u said u used turtle wax compound,is the 1 in my pic the 1 u used i already had this in my garage if not do u think this would be okay to use .I was unable to find wallnut localy so i am using corncob that is what i could find localy at a pet store. I dont know if this is good for this i will have to wait and see what my results are. The razor is not really in bad condition so shoud be okay i guess.

D2T where did you get your CrO to load your media with?