Thread: Proper treatment of this blade.

I would like to clean this blade up a little and it will need new scales. Hopefully I could get some suggestions on removing tarnish and possibly some of scratches without obliterating the blade engraving.

My first inclination was to sand (with 1500 - 2000 grit) and buff the tang and spine and leave the side of the blade alone, but this might end up looking stupid. I don't have the blade yet as it is being sent. If there is no rust I may just leave it completely alone and just rescale it.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

That razor has character plus!

I would take off the scales, soak it in WD40 to remove the grime, then wash it with soap and water. Put on some new scales and your good!

I would hate to lose that etching. Been there, done that.


Just my $.02,

I've got one like that, except it's a spike point. It's between 5 & 6/8. Warped scales but a tiny bit cleaner than that. Never tried it, as i keep meaning to do some work to it. I might get on with it after seeing your's!

Ah, so you snatched this one. I was keeping an eye on it, but just did not have the funds. Good on you!

I was thinking about this very thing when I was checking it out and, if it where mine, I would do some minor cleaning, but nothing that would remove significant amounts of metal. In other words, stay away from the sandpaper.

This blade has great natural patina and that is something you just can't fake. It's worth more than a mirror polish to me.

Enjoy it and definitely let us know how it shaves.

Oh no man, don’t defile her with sandpaper… she has too much character and history. Wash with soap and water and a soft cloth (no steelwool or scrubbing pad), rescale if you like and carefully hone her up and enjoy.
I say carefully hone her up because the slurry on low grit hone can sometimes scratch the etching (it’s almost flat) so don’t use too much slurry.

Yeah, I guess it would be kind of like polishing the coin collection.

I appreciate the input and confirms my initial instinct to not do too much with it. I needed a reminder that an important thing to remember is that with restoration is to keep it as original as possible. It will be interesting to see this blade when I get it. I have already picked out some figured maple for the scales and I think it will be a nice contrast to the patina of the blade.

I'd grind er down. Luv mirror polishes.

Mark

I have the exact same blade and I first hit the "B" with the sandpaper and buggered the "B" up.
I then put the razor in the tumbler and she is to a miror finish now. The etching on my blade was not as nice as yours is but it did polish up nice. The etching is harder to see now like i said my etching wasnt as pretty, but you can still see it. Other than my 2 cents she is a great shaver. I will try to post a pic of it later.

I was going to offer the same advice as Jed- send her to the tumbler. Glen (gssixgun) started a thread on using the tumblers for bullet casings to polish up blades. It seems to do a pretty good job cleaning them up without damaging the etching. Do a search for the thread and ask one of the many users that have tried it if they can put it in with their next batch.

Jed and Tyler,
Thanks for pointing me in the direction of the tumbler. I have polished a fair amount of brass in the past and heard of people using tumblers for blades, but did not know how it would work with etching. Thanks for the tip.