First ever restoration...

Thought I'd share some pics of my first ever restoration.

This one is far from perfect, and I haven't honed it yet (that's for tomorrow night), but I learnt a lot doing this, as well as developing some callouses on my fingers and a sore arm. But it was the most rewarding thing I have done in a long time. I have another two to restore and can't wait. Before pics here, as well as pics of the other two.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/newbies-corner/39819-vintage-blade-hunting.html

Thanks to all for your feedback and advice, and for this great site.

From what I can see in the photos it looks like a nice piece of work.

Congratulations! ;)

The razor looks nice! Share with us some of the processes you went through to bring this razor to its current condition.
Kent

Top notch work. Well done.

Very nice !!! Great job on transitioning from before to after. Looking forward to your next one.

Ray

That looks like a razor that I would like to use. very nice work.

Charlie

Looking good! :rock: It looks like a decent sized blade, too.

Nice job on the razor from the before pics you have done a lot of hand sanding. Nice overall finish and an excellent job for your first try.

Good job! :tu

It really looks nice. I hope to get into restoration soon. It's always exciting to see something nice come out of something that looked really cruddy. :)

With this being your first one, I am hopeful that I will be able to do a good job too.

Nice job!! wish I had the patients to polish the blades.

Excellent job! :tu

Did you buff out those scales on that Wosty or did you rescale it? If those are the scales from the before picture you took, then you get an extra Wow! If you rescaled it, then you get an extra Wow for that too! :D

I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Yes, lovely job, Bagman. Look forward to seeing the others.

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Originally Posted by keenedge

The razor looks nice! Share with us some of the processes you went through to bring this razor to its current condition.
Kent

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Unpinned the blade and breadknifed it smooth and flat on 320 grit wet 'n dry. Worked well. Started with far too fine grit sandpaper (400), and ended up going backwards to 80 grit befire I got the pitting and marks out. That wasted a lot of time, but I was too cautious about damaging the blade. Then all the way up to 2000. Finished with Autosol polish and a felt dremel, then by Brasso metal polish by hand.

The scales are the original. I hand sanded them smooth with 1200 grit paper, then 1500, then polished them to shiny with Brasso metal polish, then Silvo, which apparently is a little finer than Brasso. Autosol, Brasso and Silvo are here in Australia. I had no luck finding Maas or Fritz(?).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrbhagwan

Excellent job! :tu

Did you buff out those scales on that Wosty or did you rescale it? If those are the scales from the before picture you took, then you get an extra Wow! If you rescaled it, then you get an extra Wow for that too! :D

I look forward to seeing more of your work.

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Original scales. I sanded them smooth with 1200 and 1500 grit until the scratches were out, then buffed them back to a shiny black finish with Brasso metal polish.

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Originally Posted by rcardon

Good job! :tu

It really looks nice. I hope to get into restoration soon. It's always exciting to see something nice come out of something that looked really cruddy. :)

With this being your first one, I am hopeful that I will be able to do a good job too.

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I found it very rewarding. It's not as hard as you might imagine (if I can do it anyone can), but I found you do need patience. And make sure you have every grit of sandpaper between low (80 or so) and high (2000). The more steps in between the quicker it is to polish the blade up. Don't skimp like I tried to do at first! You just end up back at the hardware store.

Beautiful work mate.
Grant.

Yeah awesome job Bagman. If you had to go down to 80 grit hand sanding you must have spent a HELL of a long time sanding! Been there lately myself... 10-12 hour blades in sanding time only. Let us know how she shaves:tu

Thanks MykelDR. Good to see another Aussie into the restorations. I spent a long time trying to find the bits and pieces I needed but got them all in the end. I ended up buying the washers from Microfasteners in the US as I just couldn't source them here.

Yeah - spent a long time sanding! Half way through honing it up now. Can't wait to take it for a test shave...