Thread: life after 2000?

I made it to 2000 grit on my first hand sanding job. Does anyone know how to buff out the residual scratches that did not go away completely? Is the buffing wheel and some compound the only way to go (I live in an apt. and I have only sandpaper, steel wool, and MAAS)? Here are the before and after shots... txs



Can you see the left-over scratches?



here is another pic...

If you start polishing at this point, you will only get a shiny upper surface, but the scratches won't go away.

I'm sorry to tell you this, but the only way to get rid of those scratches is to go back and do it again

You have to take the surface down to meet the scratches. Go back to one of the previous (coarser) sandpaper grits and work slowly and carefully. (NOTE: Do NOT apply too much pressure or you may find yourself grinding in new, major scratches). Once you can make the existing scratches disappear in the field of new sanding, step to the next finer sandpaper grit and work carefully until all scratches from the coarser grit are gone. The secret to this is to be very methodical about it. For example, if you finish sanding with 320 grit paper and then step to 400 grit, keep working until you don't see any more scratches from the 320 stage. It helps if you sand in a different direction with each change of sandpaper grit so that you can more clearly see the difference in scratch marks. But go slow and be patient. Don't think to yourself, "Oh, these scratches will disappear with the following sanding steps." It doesn't work that way. There is no secret other than slow, careful and methodical work.

By the way, it is totally possible to sand and refinish a razor without using power tools. It takes a monk's patience, but it can be done. I've refinished one blade that way, stepping through about ten different grades of sandpaper, ending up with 2500 grit at which point I started hand rubbing with polishing compound. It works. Although it means you won't have much of a social life for a few evenings.

Maybe try some turtle wax rubbing compound or some of the emery compounds before hitting the sandpaper again?

Dunno.. I am a resto noob.

are the scratches you are trying to remove left over from a lower grit sand paper? Or, are they the scratches from your highest grit sand paper?

If they are from low grit, then you will need to go back, remove the scratches, then work your way back up.

If they are from the high grit, just move to the polishing compound and rub away. The fine scratches will polish out.

Looks pretty shiny to me.

Thank you ignatz, Slart, and dnjrboy! Guess I need to go back to the drawing board... The scratches are left over from the previous grits. When I sand in one direction for a grit and then I move up and sand in a different direction I end up still seeing the previous scratches from the lower grit. I will go back and be very patient (I have lots of it). I like the idea of little pressure, very insightful! From the posts here, I got the idea that I need to apply pressure, but I do see that if I apply too much pressure I put scratches deeper than the previous grit.

SO I guess the key is to apply enough pressure so you are able to remove the scratches from the previous grit and nothing more (is this correct?)! Then go up and repeat until you have a mirror blade. Thanks again.

You should make yourself one of Bill Ellis' safety jigs. I love mine and it has made working with blades so much easier.

Originally Posted by ignatz

By the way, it is totally possible to sand and refinish a razor without using power tools. It takes a monk's patience, but it can be done.

I'm sorry- I have to fundamentally disagree here.

I am assuming that the above quote is talking about getting a mirror finish with no scratches by hand. If so, it is just wrong. Sure, it's possible to "sand and refinish a razor without using power tools" but the results will not contain 'no scratches'.

Regardless of the previous scratches and all that, let's say your razor had ONLY scratches from 2000 grit (which it currently may or may not). Hell, let's say 2500 grit for argument's sake. It is impossible to give the razor a MIRROR finish (absolutely zero scratches in ANY light or angle) by hand without power tools or much higher grit paper (micro mesh 35,000 stuff, etc.). You can use a rubbing compound by hand and then polish by hand, etc. but the scratches will not disappear from 2500 grit. It will still be very shiny and look great, but do this: Get up and walk to your bathroom. Look at the mirror very closely. Assuming it is new, there will be no scratches or marks whatsoever in the mirror's surface that are meant to be there. THAT is a mirror finish.

If you want your razor to look like that and want those 2500 (2000) grit scratches to disappear, you need to buff it with cloth and compounds on a power tool. No other way about it.

Originally Posted by dnjrboy

You should make yourself one of Bill Ellis' safety jigs. I love mine and it has made working with blades so much easier.

I made this one, it definitely was an aid in the process:


I needed a block to hold the blade for sanding so I made this from walnut. I routed away most of the top to leave a ridge for the spine and inlaid a pretty powerful ceramic magnet.




I used a business card to keep from damaging the blade with the magnet.[1]

It is simillar to the Kerry rig from Bill Ellis. I botched my own copy with different spine rests and copper surface. I found that different sizes of razors work better with various thicknesess of those rests and used Bill's advice about using the copper as heatsink. You know enthusiastic noob can do a bit of damage.