Removing tarnish

EDIT:
Never mind, I poked around this site some more and found what I needed.
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I picked up an old Wade & Butcher off of E-bay (my first straight, incidentally) and it arrived rather tarnished. I'd already checked out the Yahoo group for this web page and found the emery board suggestion to work out wonderfully. However, I still have some black spots between the head and point and cannot remove them with any amount of polishing. I was thinking of trying some extremely fine steel wool, but I was wondering if anyone has had luck with removing these spots. If so, what worked best for you?

Where did you find the answers? I've a few of those I'd like to deal with myself

X

Easiest way to remove tarnish is with Maas. Check Wal-Mart on the aisle with cleaning products (Windex, Comet, etc.) It will be near the other metal polishes. Some folks have found it at Walgreens, Home Depot, and they have a website if you don't find it at your local retail outlet.

What also works real good is simichrome polish or cape cod polishing cloths. If the spots go too deep almost to the point of starting to get corrosion the old dremmel will take care of that.

Yep, I just got a couple of dremel polishing bits today, so I'll be trying that later.

After some polishing I found that the razor was actually pitted in several places. Nothing too deep, but enough to make polishing and standard tarnish removal a nuisance. Should I polish out the pitting and aim for a nice flat surface again?

It's hard to tell witout seeing it. I've got an oooooold Wade&Butcher which I found had a bit of the same thing going on. I've cleaned it with rust removing polish and it still has some corrosion and black water marking that won't come out without the dremel. I'm honing it as is for now. Ultimately I'd probably want to polish it out some dsay because pitting's not as sexy as simply aging patina.

X

You'll have to forgive the quality of these pictures, I have an extremely old digital camera. Anyway, here's the pitting that is the most obvious. The first two pictures are the ones provided from the ebay auction and the second pair of pictures are the pitted spots after cleanup.

http://home.comcast.net/~mgraepel/4c_1_b.JPG
http://home.comcast.net/~mgraepel/44_1_b.JPG
http://home.comcast.net/~mgraepel/MVC-006F.JPG
http://home.comcast.net/~mgraepel/MVC-007F.JPG

You can certainly polish it out if you've a mind to but it will take time even with the dremmel. I have a DD Goldedge with similar pitting. I gave it a general polish but some of the pitting remains. Its an outstanding shaver and to me its not worth the time.

When the pitting is close to the edge you have to be real careful with the dremmel the slightest move in the wrong direction and it will flat take out the edge and make the razor into trash. I have a green rouge which is designed for carbon and chrome steels and will put a mirror polish on a straight very rapidly.

It looks like your pitting is to deep and extensive to remove without using sandpaper. And thats a lot of work! Use this razor to practice honing on and shaving with. Make you next purchase one with less pitting.


Just my two cents,:)

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

You can certainly polish it out if you've a mind to but it will take time even with the dremmel. I have a DD Goldedge with similar pitting. I gave it a general polish but some of the pitting remains. Its an outstanding shaver and to me its not worth the time.

When the pitting is close to the edge you have to be real careful with the dremmel the slightest move in the wrong direction and it will flat take out the edge and make the razor into trash. I have a green rouge which is designed for carbon and chrome steels and will put a mirror polish on a straight very rapidly.

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What is this green rouge that you reference? Where did you get it?
jmsbcknr

Rouge is actually a misnomer for jeweler's polish. Rouge is French for "red" and the red polish is really the only jeweler's rouge. You can readily buy this online. As for how to use it, well I'll let more knowledgeable people answer that if you're curious (especially since it really doesn't come with instructions).

Here is a line I had just found about the Rouges:

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Metal Polishing Myths, Half Truths and Lies

Green rouge and white rouge are similar to jeweler's rouge

Nope! Sorry, no such thing as green or white rouge, I don't care what any one tells you.

Many manufacturers in the industry don't appreciate this, they call anything in a bar jeweler's rouge - but 'rouge' is French for 'red'. jeweler's rouge is red because it contains ferric oxide. If it doesn't contain ferric oxide, it's not rouge.

jeweler's rouge was developed not just because of how fine it can be, but also because it stains the gold and gives it a sunny glow. Green and white rouge, as many people call them, are abrasive compounds, which are in most cases way too coarse to be used on gold or anything else of value. If you offered them to a jeweler as rouge, he would laugh at you.

For a start a good quality jeweler's rouge is three times the price of any other compound. There are some abrasives which are as fine as jeweler's rouge and finer, but they don't behave like jeweler's rouge, and jeweler's rouge they are not!

Because of this generalisation I have seen very aggressive abrasive compounds being sold as products that were suitable for use on jewelery and precious metals. Not good!

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Well guys sorry to disagree with some of you but besides messing with sharp objects I've been collecting and restoring watches for years and there certainly are many types of rouges for different purposes. The typical jewelers rouge most people think of is the red stuff designed for gold and silver but there are others designed for all manor or metals and some plastics. The stuff I have I got from a site, http://www.timezone.com which has a tool shop which sells a variety of rouges. The set I have is french Dialeux I believe. It comes with about 6 or7 types. The white is a finishing compound for all metals and the blue is a super polish for all metals. There is a grey for stainless, yellow for copper and plastic and green for very hard metals. Also a verneux for taking scratches out, kind of a pre polish.The green is what I use on blades.

All rouges come in different grades and qualities. If you go into a jewelers supply shop you can buy a 5lb block of red rouge for a few bucks and spend many times more for less than half that size. Think they are all the same? Nope. With quality rouge I can take a watch case thats beat and make it look better than new.

About the rouge. The composition of the rouge (the red one, ofcourse) is iron oxide (rust), that is why it is red. I was thinking about making me a pasted strop with jeweler's rouge, but now I don't think it's a good idea introducing iron rust to my razors... Maybe that is why noone is using it... Any thoughts??

Nenad

I still don't understand whats to be gained from using a red rouge on a razor. The red is softer than the steel in the razor so its not going to do anything to the metal. If there is some rust or staining on the razor it might take that off but won't really polish the blade you need something coarser than that. I don't think it would harm it though.

If I am not mistaken red iron oxides have been used on razors for many years.
Check out some of the abrasive pastes offered at www.classicshaving.com .
They have also used the black pastes, graphite. The graphite works, I have used it, and also rottenstone (decomposing limestone). They both work and both are generally regarded otherwise. I will also be trying titanium oxide and tin oxide. I will let you know the results. :)