Thread: Removing Rust

Hi Guys,

I've been using this razor for a few months now and i've been wanting to repair it and i've found a friend with a dremel. I think most of the black smudges should come off ok with the flintz i've got but the big blob of rust i'm not so sure about. It doesn't feel too thick but as i scratch it with my finger nail my nail comes off before the rust does. So i assume i have to sand it down. What grade paper should i start with and progress too before finishing it off with the dremel and flintz?

As you can see i screwed the spine in my early days of honing and there's a large 1mm flat spot, alas i've learned my lesson well. But i am concerned that this rust is near the spine and i assume i have to be real careful not to sand down the spine at all and alter the angle.

There is also some heavy rust on top of the spine, some of it wraps around from that point on the tip, but there is another spot down near the tang, just where the blade ends.

There is also some darkness in the grooves on the tang, but i assume the wire brush on a dremel will get this out.

Thanks for any tips guys

orfeo

I've not sanded a razor before at that level (I only have a square of 12,000 grit at the moment, which would be pretty useless on that)
but I have had some good luck with chemical rust removers to get a head start on the sanding. Much of it will bubble off, but be careful and dilute the solution, watch it carefully and rinse quickly after each application. I had a DD lifetime that looked about that bad, and now it hardly looks like it ever had rust on it. David (heavydutysg135) has seen the one I'm talking about. Didn't seem to hurt it.


*still looking for original scales for one of those btw...mine are busted.....



John P.

Make a little ball of aluminum foil and rub it with that! Does wonders.

Jim

In my limited experience, 200-300 grit wet/dry sandpaper with some water will knock that rust down pretty quick. You could go lower, but then it takes a little while to sand out the scratch marks... a wire brush on a dremel also works very well.

That is going to take some sanding and you probably will not get all the pitting out. You will sand the blade so thin it will start to flex. But you should be able to get most all of it out. I would start with 250 on the heavy spots, then on the entire blade go 800, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500 if you can find any. I have a hard time finding anything higher than 2000 grit.

If you use a wire brush in a dremel be very careful. If the brush wraps around the back edge of the spine, it will flip around the blade and either break it or take off a finger. I had it happen a couple of times and gave upon the dremel all together and got a low speed buffer, but I still hand sand.

Before messing with sandpaper do what Jim said and crumple aluminum foil into a ball. Then just use the ball on the rust as if you were sanding. It's some kind of reaction that makes the rust come off, I forget why. Paulo knows.

thanks guys, i'll try the aluminium then the rust remove and if those don't work i'll go up to the sand paper. I'm not too concerned about the rust but i figured it would be a good idea to take it off. But now i'm wondering if i would be better just leaving it be. Also, so far i've only seen 1200 grit sand paper at my local hardware store and nothing higher, is there good places to go to get the high stuff? i was thinking of stopping by a car body repair shop, i assume they'd have it all. '

thanks again

orfeo

Originally Posted by Philadelph

Before messing with sandpaper do what Jim said and crumple aluminum foil into a ball. Then just use the ball on the rust as if you were sanding. It's some kind of reaction that makes the rust come off, I forget why. Paulo knows.

I'm considering this as well. Does it matter which side of the aluminum foil is facing outward (dull .vs shiny)? Does one side work better than the other?

Its all aluminum so the side doesn't matter.

Unless your really experienced I wouldn't worry about getting the corrosion pits out but you need to get the rust off. otherwise it will only spread. I had a revisor that developed a small rust spot and I thought I got it all out but every time I used the razor I noticed it was back and it was just starting to pit. Rust is like a cancer it will only get worse you can't stabilize it.

I tried that aluminium foil on the spot i had and it worked a treat. All the rust seems to be gone and there's some huge pitting which is obviously never going to come out. But i'll just polish it up now and be happy if the rust doesn't come back. The foil worked well on the grooves on the tang which were a bit black as well.

thanks for the tip

orfeo