Thread: Need some advice on a blade I'll be restoring

Hi all,

just picked up a razor from ebay which isn't as good as I'd hoped it might be. It's a Taylor's Eyewitness 1000 which is quite tatty. There's a fair amount of rust, which I'm less worried about, I'm going to try electrolysis to shift that along with solvol and a dremel wheel.

The more worrying thing is the frown and the amount of wear. I'm wondering if I can spend some time with a coarse stone and just work down to a flat edge, taking most of the metal from the heel of the blade where it's widest. There's some photos below and I'd appreciate your advice. If I can get the blade in reasonable shape I'll make some fresh scales and see how it is.

Worst case scenario I'm out £10.

Cheers,

Justin.

Of course, when applying science, make sure you get the science right! Below is what I found after a couple of hours of electrolysis. Next time I'll get the polarity correct, as I now have a scrap blade and a very clean piece of cast iron.

Doh!

Darn. Good your first attempt was on a cheaper blade. You could retry with the correct polarity and see if you could get the blade to clean up. . Either way I applaud your efforts of using electrolysis. At least it worked according to plan.

that was my first thought, until I saw how deeply scalloped the edge of the blade was. Certainly works, and I have some other things to try with it, so I'm sure that there's a future for this sort of this.

I have a cast iron stove I may put in a large bin to try this on, it's old and rusty but might just turn out to be reusable with this method.

Cheers,

J.

use tape on narrow portion of the blade . you should be ok

I took an interest in cast iron pans a couple of years ago when I became aware of the money we spent on teflon pans. Electrolysis is one of the methods used by pan collectors to clean up old skillets. Maybe the links below will help you out:

Wagner and Griswold Society

Tech Tips -- Electrolytic Rust Removal

Electrolysis Cleaning Method

The positive terminal is properly referred to as the cathode, and the negative terminal is called the anode. We generally think of the electricity flowing from the cathode to the anode, but the opposite is true. Electrons flow from anode to cathode, which makes sense when you remember that an electron is a negatively charged particle. When you perform electrolysis, you will want your anode tied to the object to be cleaned, and to have your cathode surround that object. If it isn't practical to surround the object, it is at least better to have multiple cathodes placed around the object; the electrons want to flow in a straight line to the cathode(s).

I'm glad that you brought this topic up. I recently picked up several razors and all of them need metal work. I had kind of forgotten about electrolysis.

Personally I haven't ever seen chemicals, or electrolysis work...

I have seen tons of guys try different stuff, and some works to a certain degree but sooner or lather you have to polish out the metal...

One of the fastest ways to find out where you stand on a restore, is to use a single edge razor blade, and scrap away the top layers of rust first... Also just a hint for future restores, fix the edge first, then start the restore, no sense in putting in the pretty work, if you can't get the razor to shave.... You don't have to hone it up, but I always even them up, and cut a pre-bevel to make sure I have nice, even, clean steel, for when I do get ready to hone...

That razor was a perfect example of bad honing, somebody pushed it and wrecked the toe...

As Sham just said taping the spine after the edge is even could correct that blade ...

Good luck