Thread: Getting rid of black spots (pitting?) on blade

I have an old straight razor which I would like to do up a bit. It is in pretty good ocndition overall, but on the blade there are these little black spots, usually in bunches (looks like the spray option in MSPaint). I gather these are known as pitting? Anyway, I tried polishing them out, but I'll be sitting here forever if I want to do it that way. I do have some wet&dry sandpaper, which goes up to grit 1500 I think. Can I use that, and then try to polish out the scratches at the end?

I don't have a dremel, or any other tool like that, so I'll be doing this by hand.

I have checked out the sanding tutorial here, but last time I tried that it took forever to get the scratches out, so I just want to ensure there isn't anything else I can do first.

There really is NO shortcut, it just takes time and elbow grease

so, should I sand them out, or try and polish them out?

I have spoken to guys that tackled that job and know what they are doing. They talked like 12 hours of hand sanding before they went to the dremel. I just don't have the patience. I hit them with semi chrome or flitz and use them stained. If it really bothered me that much I would send it out and pay to have it done. YMMV.

Depending on the depth and how removed you want them, you can start sanding from a high grit down to a low grit, then back up again. I do this sometimes, because it is not always necessary to start at 180 grit. I did one just on Friday and could have got away with starting at 1k, but chose to start at 600.

Some pitting too, just don't want to come out. I have spent up to 14hrs on a blade at the lowest grit, and whilst the pitting looked very shallow, it just didn't seem to budge. So I sometimes, then just move up the grits to 2k, and whatever faint pitting is left, I live with.

YMMV.

Originally Posted by JimmyH-AD

They talked like 12 hours of hand sanding before they went to the dremel. I just don't have the patience.

I'd take the 12hrs handsanding over 20mins honing any day of the week. I kid you not.

I am going to try sanding (though I only have sandpaper up to 1500 grit). If that doesn't work too well (ie. lots of scratches which I can't polish out) then I'll leave it.

A question on you response. If the spots are only aestetic and not affecting the shave, are they really that important if not collecting? One I misted inteh ads today has some spots and one near the edge. It doesnt affect the shave and to sand it would risk harming th edge or ake a lost of honing to rework the bevel.The shave is greatm but for me to consider it excellent I know it has to be perfect to get past Utopia. So please look at it and offer some suggestions on how to proceed.

hey, if I have access to a sandblaster could I blast a blade first then start sanding up? that would clean the pits out right, so at least the darkness would be gone. ???

Red

Originally Posted by treydampier

A question on you response. If the spots are only aestetic and not affecting the shave, are they really that important if not collecting? One I misted inteh ads today has some spots and one near the edge. It doesnt affect the shave and to sand it would risk harming th edge or ake a lost of honing to rework the bevel.The shave is greatm but for me to consider it excellent I know it has to be perfect to get past Utopia. So please look at it and offer some suggestions on how to proceed.

It depends how one looks at it. Who wants to buy an ugly razor with pitting, for their first shaver? Only time I have received a razor like that, I had no intentions of using it until it was cleaned up properly.

When you sand a razor for restoration, you have to sand the whole blade, not just the parts that have pitting or discolouration, otherwise you going to have a really munted looking blade. Inevitably you will have to sand the edge, and then e bevel needs to be established.