Thread: Where do I start?

I'm a newbie to str8s, and to restoration. I have a nice blade from Seraphim, which I messed up and am working on recovering. But that got me thinking a) I should have a cheap bay blade that I can learn to hone on, and b) this restoration thing is quite a lot of fun.
So I got this.....



Firstly anybody heard of Alwin? The ebay listing said, "alwin germany" but I can't see that.

Ok some pics. I know there is a bunch of rust, but its actually in better shape than I thought. The blade is 6/8th half hollow, at a guess, and quite sharp. There is a patch of dark pitting along the spine but as I said this is more about me getting something useable and that I can practice honing with than a mirror finish.













My current plan, minus any suggestions from you folk :-)

Aluminium foil scrub. (just started it looks significantly better already) The side with more rust has 2 or 3 "raised" rather than pitted patches. Sanding (as below) should remove these?
then follow the handsanding route; I currently have CrOx 80/320/1500/2000 I was thinking of progressing thru these but I should probably get more?
I have access to a dremel, but I have no idea how to use it and furthermore don't have a clamp.

Also should I remove the pin to clean around the joint? And what should I use to clean up those nice orange (plastic) scales.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

M0nk3y

You probably want to avoid using the dremel. It will screw a blade fast if you aren't paying attention. May even hurt you.

I'd start with that 1500 grit you have. That should get rid of the active rust patches and leave relatively small scratches. If you find pits, drop down to about 100 grit to remove the pits then work back up to get rid of the scratches, topping out around 1500 - 2000. Polish until you are happy with it.

For the scales, you can probably use a toothbrush and some warm water to free up the heavy gunk. Otherwize, I would rub it down with something like Flitz or Maas to bring back the luster.

Be very careful if you try to un/repin. I've found older translucent scales like this to be quite brittle.

If I have learned anything, this is it. Go slow and be patient.

I wouldn't unpin... i'd use dental floss to get in the spaces (I actually use the little dental pick flosser tools you can buy in a bag of 50 or so). you have some sanding ahead of you for sure... and don't use the dremel unless you are pretty handy with it.

Don't forget the photos when you get'er done!!

BEFORE YOU EVEN START!!!!

Edge check that blade. Set a bevel and see if it swiss cheeses. UNLESS, you don't even care if it will shave. Just trying to save you a ton of possible disappointment if you expect a shaver after 40 hours of work only to find out the blade is so rusted the edge won't take an edge.

So after, maybe 4-6 hours total, alu foil scrub and then up through various grits I had, all by had. I have this razor, not perfect but not bad either. Seraphim kindly honed it, thanks again. And it turns out that he thinks there is a little bit of a bend in the blade. Hopefully it wasn't my cleaning to hard.

Any here are some picture, as requested, by Ward1402

spine



sides




and the end and edge that show the slight bow in the blade






Thanks for all the help and suggestions, once it gets less sharp, I'm sure you'll see me asking annoying honing an dstroping questions 8-D

M