Thread: Any easier way to remove pitting?

So, picked this up on fleabay the other day.




After several hours of effort, and 3/4 of an 8.5x11 of 80grit sand paper, here is where it sits:






It is killing me. The 80 grit just doesn't seem to want to do much of ANYTHING to the blade. Fingers are killing me, and it IMHO isn't even half way there with the 80grit, before I move to less coarse grits for finishing sanding before polish. Any suggestions to a newb? Looked through the forums, and other than flap disks on a dremel (which honestly scares the crap out of me), no tips/tricks were found. I see MANY, BEAUTIFUL restorations here, any of the pros want to share the tricks of their trade?

dip it in hot acid, it will remove the stains. make sure you rinse off the acid immediately afterward or it will rust badly.

Originally Posted by cotdt

dip it in hot acid, it will remove the stains. make sure you rinse off the acid immediately afterward or it will rust badly.

Now this is something I would never do, or advise somebody to do.
cotdt, why would you say such thing? Have you experimented with this? If you have, please post the results, otherwise consider it a warning that continuing to post misleading information is a path you don't want to take.

There is a quicker way, it's called regrinding .

In all seriousness though, pitting like that will take quite a bit of sanding. Also be sure you're using an aluminum oxide sandpaper meant for steel; not garnet wood sandpaper as it's too weak to do very much.

regrinding is the quickest. send out to have it done by a restorer.

hire day labor to come sand for you. provide lunch.

don't know about the whole acid thing. i love to experiment and all, but from the horror movies i remember acid of any kind scares the be-jesus out of me.

throw away and get an easier project razor. (if this is an option btw, i will happily pay the postage to send to me. i likes a challenge.)

or you can just say, 'you know, it's old anyway. let's just leave the poor pits alone.' and then finish sanding to polish. unless the edge is pitted, they will not effect the shave. if they are in the edge, hone it out.

hope that some of these help.

good luck

vgod

I'm with vgod on that one, either send it out or live with it. I have a 1" W&B for barbers use and it has similar pitting. I did the same as you and put a few hours in and a bunch of elbow grease ....... and gave it up. Fortunately for me the pitting is above the edge so that isn't an issue. The rust is gone and I will live with the pitting. Here is some good info if you want to keep at it.

Originally Posted by Lordkappa

There is a quicker way, it's called regrinding .

Is that how the pros do their remarkable restorations?

In all seriousness though, pitting like that will take quite a bit of sanding. Also be sure you're using an aluminum oxide sandpaper meant for steel; not garnet wood sandpaper as it's too weak to do very much.

Yep, using Aluminum oxide, and even at that, it seems to loose all "cutting" ability after 30-seconds or so.

Originally Posted by vgod

regrinding is the quickest. send out to have it done by a restorer.

That's what I was afraid of. I'm sure restoration services don't come cheap.

hire day labor to come sand for you. provide lunch.

Day laborers get some serious money out here lately, like $10/hr.

don't know about the whole acid thing. i love to experiment and all, but from the horror movies i remember acid of any kind scares the be-jesus out of me.

Yeah, I don't think that is something I'd entertain personally.

throw away and get an easier project razor. (if this is an option btw, i will happily pay the postage to send to me. i likes a challenge.)

or you can just say, 'you know, it's old anyway. let's just leave the poor pits alone.' and then finish sanding to polish. unless the edge is pitted, they will not effect the shave. if they are in the edge, hone it out.

Well, tossing it out isn't an option, so I'll just keep it around and sand on it from time to time I guess, until I get fed up enough to live with its final state

Originally Posted by TheContinentalOp

...Well, tossing it out isn't an option, so I'll just keep it around and sand on it from time to time I guess, until I get fed up enough to live with its final state

That's a good plan. Oil it well to keep any rust from getting started again and each time it even thinks about rusting. Maybe the next time it needs honing, give it another session with the sandpaper, then hone. Each time you'll make a little progress. As was said previously, only the edge matters for shaving.

You could carefully fashion a wooden form that matches the concavity. That would allow you to use the paper more efficiently. A similarly shaped block to lay the blade down upon, would also go a long way to not putting so much pressure on a flexible part of the blade you don't want to have fracture by giving it some support from the bottom.

I'd love to know what "silver combined with india" really meant.

That razor is deeply pitted in areas. It's slow going for you because there is no way to achieve aesthetic uniformity regardless of the sanding mode used (manual or machine) without removing steel on the ENTIRE BLADE to the depth of the deepest pits. But, you've already found that out.

I agree, keep coming back to that project when you have the initiative to work on it and then stop and put it away when you lose interest or get frustrated.

Chris L

Even if you reground it- if you wanted it looking good I'd say you'd lose some of that stamping on the blade "silver combined with...". The point is gone too. More space behind the notch than in front of it. This (along with the bad hone wear) tells me that this blade was once 8/8 or bigger where as now it looks 6/8, 7/8 at best (not at the toe!). I'd do a major overhaul if I were you and had the time/patience/money.