Thread: Removing tarnish

EDIT:
Never mind, I poked around this site some more and found what I needed.
\EDIT

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.

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,