Sanding...how much time should it take to...

I am trying out my first restore, and am handsanding a rusty razor that I picked up at an antique shop.

It is not a name I have heard before: CARL ERNST KIRSCH, SOLINGEN (on the front side), CONDOR (one the back).

I have been sanding at 120 and seem to have reached a point where I don't think it is doing much anymore. But the razor is not a 'clean' as I think it should be before I move on the the next grit.

I have sanded it for approx 3 hours at 120 grit.

It has had a big change in appearance but the pitting (??) is not changing ... staying black.

What do you think:

http://www.shavemyface.com/gallery/a...7/CONDOR-1.JPG

http://www.shavemyface.com/gallery/a...7/CONDOR-2.JPG

http://www.shavemyface.com/gallery/a...7/CONDOR-3.JPG

http://www.shavemyface.com/gallery/a...7/CONDOR-4.JPG

How much more time at 120 should I spend?

(I have the sneeky suspision that people are going to tell me 'as long as it takes')

Either way I would appreciate the input.

Thanks,

Seth

It depends how clean/shiny you want the razor to be. I have a few resto's that took 14hrs sanding on 180. Once you finish with 180 it goes a bit faster. Sometimes I leave a little discoloration, but that's coz I'm not too fussy, and it leaves a little character on the blade.

Yours looks like it could easily have another few hours at 180. It can be quite slow and arduous, but in the end, its worth it.

Good luck, look forward to seeing the razor once finished.

I also leave some pitting on mine, I just make the pits shiny! You need to keep at it in my opinion until the black is mostly gone. Remember, a higher grit is going to take less metal off!

I believe in Bruno's thread about sanding, he mentioned starting with 80 or 120 grit for really badly pitted blades. Perhaps you needed to start there. Doing circles, then alternating with horizonal strokes as you change grits. Then at 240, you switch to vertical strokes (spine to edge), alternating with heel to toe strokes as you move up in grits until you reach 2000.

Steve

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zepplin

I believe in Bruno's thread about sanding, he mentioned starting with 80 or 120 grit for really badly pitted blades. Perhaps you needed to start there.
Steve

---

It seems that 180 is the lowest wet/dry paper you can get here. Might be different up in Tokyo though, IIRC, that's roughly where Seth is located. And the regular old sandpaper at like 60grit really doesn't seem to have any affect for removing metal at all. Yea I tried it once.

Perseverance Zethlent, Perseverance. :gl:

Thanks guys,

I have 80 grit but it doesn't seem to do much as OS mentioned.

The 120 I've been using has go fine but I am coming to understand how long some restorations can take for the novice.

I'll keep at it and keep things posted.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ZethLent

Thanks guys,

I have 80 grit but it doesn't seem to do much as OS mentioned.

The 120 I've been using has go fine but I am coming to understand how long some restorations can take for the novice.

I'll keep at it and keep things posted.

---

For a blade like that, you can count on 6 - 10 hours of sanding before the pitting is gone.
I never leave pitting on a blade. Otherwise what's the point of sanding? :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bruno

For a blade like that, you can count on 6 - 10 hours of sanding before the pitting is gone.
I never leave pitting on a blade. Otherwise what's the point of sanding? :)

---

Anoher question, should I be sanding wet or dry to remove the pitting? I have been doing only dry, but if wet would go faster or be more effective, then I may try to do it that way.

In my experience, dry sanding is quickest. There are several brands of sandpaper, not all of them last the same time.

And be sure to use 'dry' paper. Not 'wet / dry' I have done several comparative tests using equal grits, but wet/dry was always significantly slower than dry. Wet/dry paper used dry also clogs up really fast.

Also wet sanding with coarse grit is pretty tricky. The water tends to creep in the scratchlines. So if you put the blade away when you are done and you didn't dry the blade with a blowdryer (or rubbing alcohol, or some other way to repel the water), you will find it the next day with lots of new rust / oxidation.
Even putting the wet blade aside for 5 minutes will give you new tarnish.

You could prevent this by adding baking soda. But that doesn't make it any quicker, and I don't know if the baking soda prevents the scratch lines from starting new oxidation.

Wet sanding with WD-40 instead of water helps, prevents and breaks up the rust too. It's what I've been doing since I saw Glen do a resto on a red imp that looked absolutely horrible when he started and really good when done and gave the suggestion there in the thread for the 400 - 1k grit range.

Found the old thread :)
http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...e-attempt.html

Funny you should mention that Bevan, I use metal polish, it does seem to help cut faster fro whatever reason.