6/8 WB blond horn cleanup

Folks,
I do not do the level of workmanship most of you do so i rarely post here. Personally i like a razor that is free of nicks, chips and rust... everything above that level is eye candy.
Here are the before pictures, i really like the blond horn with the impression so i decide to live with the scales and did not un-pin the razor.

The Wade and Butcher name is virtually gone from the blade... only a the "W e d But" were there when i started. however the "Sheffield" and the "B arrow cross" logo are still visible.

The blade measures 6/8 from edge to where it rests on the hone... 13/16" from edge to top of spine. it is a square point with a "diamond" blade cross-section.

So here are the before pictures:

And these are the after pictures. You notice the leftover pitting and scale damage... anybody have a relatively simple horn scale repair guideline?

I'll be honing this one up later tonight... it will be my Easter shaver!

The finished pictures:

Great job! As for horn repair? I can't speak for actually repairing the horn so that it looks like new, but if you want to "stabilize" it so that it is waterproof and the cracks will not get worse, you can do a CA finish on it. I would sand it a little to try to minimize the visible damage (obviously un-pinned) and then do the CA. It turns out nicely if you take your time and do it well.

I agree with what Alex, I would use water thin CA and see if I could get it to wick into the cracks then sand the horn.

I like the look of the blade

Charlie

That is a wonderful job!
I'd be proud if I accomplished that.

I am a bit confused by the replies, fellas. Should the horn be lightly sanded (with what grit) BEFORE a water thin CA is applied? or AFTER?

Did you photoshop this?
Hahahahahaha
the horn is startlingly brighter and looks sooo much better
Regards

i only psed for cropping and image size. it looks nicer with lots of sunlight shining through them

the only thing i did to the scales was wipe them down good with maas... probably cleaned a century of grime out. i figure I'll have to deal with the "split look" in some areas none of the cracks are real bad... yes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TOB9595

I am a bit confused by the replies, fellas. Should the horn be lightly sanded (with what grit) BEFORE a water thin CA is applied? or AFTER?


Regards

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I would fill voids and cracks as best I could then sand to clean up and level. If I were then going to give the scales an all over top coat, I would sand again before coating the scales. As to grit, it is hard to say it depends on the surface. I would guess the starting grit would be in the range from 220 to 600. You would have to try it and see what works.

Charlie

thanks gents for the suggestions i honed this razor up Saturday night and it is a sweet razor (I've only had one wb that i liked the shave better, wb's are not my favorites). i think i will try the thin CA and then sanding I'm mainly concerned about the one near the front toe when the razor is closed.. the blade used to smack the scale there before i adjusted the pin.

I was suggesting doing a CA finish like you would do on wood, but on the horn. Sand before you start the finish if you need to even out any extreme edges. You could obviously try to just fill crack voids and stabilize them, but it may be visible because of the sanding after you are done. :shrug:

Can I ask what your process was on the blade? It looks great. I'm new to this and haven't had results that good yet.

-Matt

OK! I feel a right idiot!!
I kept looking at the horn wondering where the improvement was when you first posted. I just now saw that the blade had been restored:o

Beautiful by the way!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shaveshell

Can I ask what your process was on the blade? It looks great. I'm new to this and haven't had results that good yet.

-Matt

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the blade process:
cleaned it first with MAAS (that was before the "before" pictures)

dremel work--- recently i purchased a "workstation" (drill press stand combo) to go with my dremel and this was it's first test.

first- i went over the entire blade with a carbon steel wire brush.. i tried to keep the tips moving from spine to edge not heal to toe on the blade

then --- brown tripoli paste on a 1.5 inch felt wheel this i worked in both spine to edge and heel to toe.

repeated the above step with a fresh wheel and jeweler's rouge

then another felt wheel and green tripoli paste first toe to heel and then edge to spine then once more toe to heel

when using the dremel make sure to keep the blade moving all the time and only very lightly in contact with the wheel. stop often and make sure the blade does not overheat...

after the dremel steps i smeared some on the green paste on both side of the blade and then polished it with a cloth for about 20 minutes making sure all the dremel marks (if you leave it in one spot too long you get a bright spot that is difficult to match) were gone.

total time from the last photo of the before to the first of the after 2:19:39

Very nice Jim, the blade looks great. I just finished a restore on an old W&B blond horn myself. It was missing half a pin so when I tried to take it out, the small end of the horn broke off. They weren't as nice as yours. So I had to make my own. here was the before pic anyway.

After you CA the cracks and then sand the horn flush and clean, also sand out that "Yanza" and "JP" scratched into the back scale!

Treat the horn with neats foot (maybe even when sanding), renaissance wax.

You might even be able to add some gold leafing to the print again....but that would be tricky on horn. However, renaisance wax does clean up the excess...

C utz

yes, nice work:tu