1st Resto- WB Celebrated

Getting in to the fray on restorations. For my first endeavor- a WB The celebrated I bought off of Hi_Bug_GL here in the classifieds (many thanks!). The razor came as promised, with the blade in pretty good shape (nearly shave ready) and the original horn handles sadly cracked and beyond use.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29...y/DSC_2160.jpg

Found a really nice piece of Wenge (is that "wenj" or "wen-gay"?) at my local Rockler wood suppy and spent several minutes tracing out the scales in different spots until I was happy with the grain. Then rough cut them out on our little Ryobi band saw at work (not the finest piece of equipment).

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29...y/DSC_2162.jpg

Project will be on hold until the work schedule lightens up a bit and I can get in to our proper shop to start the sanding and shaping process.

I'm planning on trying to clean up the original metal spacer- think that'll be a nice touch against the busy grain in the wood and provide some nice contrast.

Happy to hear comments and suggestions as this goes forward! Especially interested in any history that anyone can provide me on the blade- year of make, etc. Thanks a lot :D

Found some polishing compound at my local Pep Boys - Blue Magic Metal Polish (stinky stuff!) and went at it with the dremel polishing wheel. Only did one application, but so far not overly impressed with the clean up.
I've got no problem spending some serious hours cleaning this blade up, but I'm really worried about taking out the lettering on the blade if I go at it with some sandpaper. It's not terribly deep as it is. Anyone have some experience with that? Should I just leave it as is and be happy with the weathered look (fine by me)?

The lettering on the blade is one of those things that you often have to either choose to keep or have a shiny blade. That's just the way it normally goes. You'll have to make a decision about what you want from the blade and then go with that.

If you want to keep the lettering, maybe it is tidy enough and ready for the hones. There is something genuine about a historical blade that looks old.

If you want to try and clean it up a little, get your self some high grit sand paper (1000?) and start there. See what you can get away with.

Otherwise, start lower and remove everything that you need to get the blade shiny.

Since it is your first restore, I would suggest either leaving the blade or just gently cleaning it up. There is a lot to learn just around the scale making and pinning process. That should keep you busy for a while. :gl:

Keep the etching on the blade. You will appreciate it later. I have done it both ways and frankly, a very shiny W&B just does not look right to me. They are over 100 years old and I like to see some character in the old blades. I would just clean the blade and then HAND POLISH with MAAS or similar metal polish to get the grime off.

Just my $.02,:)

Nice start. :tu
My W&B has no printing on it, but the blade itself was in very good good shape so only polished. Since I started using it over three years ago the patina has built back up and it once again is starting to look its age. I'm with Randy in that appreciation.

X

Glen was nice enough to take on honing this baby up and it'll take a spin in the tumbler for a few days. In the mean time, it occurred to me that I might be able to make a "pinless" razor. Not that there aren't pins, just that they are not visible from the outside. Has anyone ever tried either of these methods?

Option 1- drill the pin holes from the inside only- not going all the way through. Put threaded inserts on the inside of each hole on the pivot end, then assemble the razor with a set screw as a pin (that's a screw with no head on it on either end- just a threaded shaft). For the wedge end, cut a small length of brass rod to reinforce the joint and glue it together.

That option would be truly invisible from the outside, but you could never tighten it if something got loose on ya.

Option 2- Switch the set screw to the wedge end. Do that side first. Wedge end is "pinless". For the pivot pin, drill out from the back side of the scales, not going all the way through the display scale. pit a threaded insert in the display side, then assemble with a countersunk allen head machine screw.

That way you could tighten the one allen screw, and there would only be one small blemish on the back side of the razor. Everything else would look just like polished wood from the outside.

Thoughts? I think I'm going to try option 2 when the blade comes home.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kenneyty

Glen was nice enough to take on honing this baby up and it'll take a spin in the tumbler for a few days. In the mean time, it occurred to me that I might be able to make a "pinless" razor. Not that there aren't pins, just that they are not visible from the outside. Has anyone ever tried either of these methods?

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Cool. I just picked up a W&B recently, a 7/8 barber's notched. It's quite scratched up, but has the etching like yours. Post finished pics when you get it back from Glen if you don't mind, I'd like to see the tumbler results....(I think I'm going to start my own thread now.... :) )

Finally got these bad boys shaped and sanded. You can see here the not-quite-finished results of my "pinless scales". When finished there will only be one visible hole on the back side of the pivot pin. I'll post pics of my hardware rig soon. The only downside to this setup so far is that you have to start with thicker scale stock, and the finished scales will have to be roughly 3/16 thick at the pivot pin. Gives you some nice room to play with contour though.
Now to finish- a few coats of CA.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29...ty/scales1.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29...ty/scales2.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29...ty/scales3.jpg

I like the shaped scales actually. Is that to help keep the weight down or was it a purely artistic decision?

X

Yeah- didn't want em super thick, and I thought throwing some contour in there might bring out some interesting grain. They feel nice that way too.

OK I AM Very nice person and everyone knows that would you mind returning my razor back????????:rock::gl::y:y:y

This is not fair at all.i never said you have to hurt me so badly i can't go to sleep.wow
Or i may hurting myself???

Congratulations I am proud of you and ob you have done.
All above was a joke.
excellent work
want me to make shave ready i will do it for you but you have to make exact handles for me then.i pay for materials?

Haha- Easy, Sam!

Wait 'til you see the finish on it before you give me too much credit!:rofl2:

I do have some left over Wenge, but it doesn't have the cool zebra grain that these had. Much smoother.

Allright- finally finished the scales...well almost. This was my first attempt at making scales ever. I'm pretty happy with the hidden pins. Came out pretty nice. My piece of Wenge had some weird striations of yellow in them that really came out with the CA finish. Doing that finish was tough and I'm only moderately happy with how they came out. I think I learned a lot for next time out. Lesson #1- glossy shows off all imperfections. Those weird yellow lines look way more pronounced than they would have had I just oiled these.
My one big issue now is that I haven't yet glued together the wedge end. These scales have very little flex to them and I just don't think I'm going to be able to make that original wedge close up. I'm open to ideas if anyone thinks I can make it work. Right now there's just a small machine pin holding it in place- no glue or anything.
As soon as I get a decent camera here tomorrow I'll try to take pictures of the hardware for the pinless setup in case anyone is interested in trying it out.
enjoy,
t
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29...yty/closed.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29/kenneyty/front.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29/kenneyty/back.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29/kenneyty/tang.jpg

oh yeah- and here's the wedge. I photoshopped it a little just to show how wide the gap is.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29/kenneyty/wedge.jpg

The more I look at this razor the more I like it Kenny. The scales look a bit over sized at the shoulder to me. Is that to house the pinless setup or was it an aesthetic decision? I can't wait to see tomorrow's pics. :w

X

yeah- they're definitely a little fat. I'd say a little more than 3/16" at their fattest. I think I could make that thinner the next time out. I'll have to measure my threaded inserts and drill the hole just a touch over. May try it again on some G10 or something because I think the look is interesting.

That wedge problem is definitely something I want to solve and learn what I did wrong/need to do next time before I start.

Nice work. Welcome to the money and time pit we call restoration.

It's pronounced "Wen-Geh" incidentally. I was once corrected by my gay roommate who is an interior designer. I was pronouncing it incorrectly as "Wenj". I don't question his authority on matters such as this.