Thread: Razor restoration pictorial

First, a few words about the dreaded BreadKnife maneuver:
Some of the top honemiesters do not recommend BreadKnifing an edge, but instead to hone on a course stone until the defect is gone, this is indeed good advice, in most cases, honing on a course hone is all you need to correct edge defects. However in some cases, the defect is severe enough (or the edge uneven enough) to warrant a drastic edge re-profile. There are other factors to consider before you decide to BK or hone; unfortunately the line is often blurred when determining the severity of the damage.
Also, the call of the wild… err, the call of the BreadKinfe is often irresistible, and some folks will answer, for those too week to resist, the best I can do is advice based on my experience and try to leave the decision to you.

In the first photo the blade has now been breadknifed, as you can see the edge is now straight and has a slight smile, not much loss of material and is still about 5/8th wide. In this case material was removed from the edge at the heel and just forward of the middle to balance (straighten) the curve at tow, if you look carefully at the second photo of the rear blade face close-up, you may see the bevel still exist near the tip of the toe and not much at the heel.

At this point I need to raise three points…
1) Depending on the condition of the edge you may not have to remove the entire bevel, but remove just enough material to reshape the edge (in other words… remove the high spots to get the edge straight).
2) When BreadKnifing, be mindful of the “optical illusion” caused by uneven hone were at the spine, or you may unnecessarily remove material from the heel in an attempt to get the blade even. So you need to concentrate on the outline of the blade and ignore the uneven hone were witch makes the toe appear narrower than it really is, (you may want use a black marker or electrical tape to mask the hone were before you BK).
3) Most hollow ground blades have a thicker ridge (or bump) just behind the edge, it is also parallel to the edge. This ridge gives the thin and flexible edge some necessary stiffness. During restoration you should try to preserve this ridge. However depending on the condition of the edge such as a small crack or large chip, when you BK, sometimes you must cut into this ridge (hopefully you don’t remove it all), however all is not lost, simply make the new edge parallel with what’s left of the ridge, and the shape of the edge will be close to originally manufactured. Chances are good, after honing, the bevels will be even and the shave just as good as when new.

Smiling blades, (near) wedge blades and arched-back blades closely follow the above points, but with a few differences, that discussion we reserve for another thread.

Last photo, a shot of the blade upside down, sighting along the edge from the heel to toe so you see the slight smile (I only wish I had taken a similar photo before BK, so we could compare, but I promise in future threads, I wont make that mistake again).


Up next, the “After Cleaning Photos” we will discuss the “almost” clean blade so stay tuned.

Thanks for a fantastic thread. I will eagerly await the next installment.

...too slow!
I need MORE updates... MOOOORE!!

lol, thank you for taking the time to explain the process step by step to us newbies. I also like how you explain why you might choose to do it one way or another (instead of just saying "this is how you breadknife..")

Keep it up

So here we are, the hard part is all done, blade is rust free, most of the patina is gone, now we have bright steel and for the first time in decades the manufacturer’s mark (tang stamp) is clearly visible (what a relief).
…What’s that you ask?.. “…is this what I waited so long to see?... how come it’s not shiny… and it still has pits on the face and tang…”
Well we can’t satisfy everybody, not even ourselves sometimes. Humor aside, the truth is a practical one.

The only way to remove the rust, patina and pits, is to remove steel. Rust and patina were once bright steel, but when rust flakes away and patina removed, what remains are the space where the steel one was (like potholes in the roadway)… pits. Pits extend below the surface of the steel, and another reality we would simply fill the pits like we fill potholes and be happy, however in “this” reality filling pits in hardened steel is next to impossible.
So what do we do for a nice, level, clean, blemish free surface? We must remove the top surface of the steel down to the deepest pit.
Unfortunately, hollow ground blades are thin to begin with, and with every brush of abrasive, the blade gets thinner… remember that thicker ridge we discussed in our last post?… though the blade is thin, it is stiff and strong enough to withstand the rigors of cutting whiskers because the steel has “volume”, but still needs the ridge for added strength and stiffness.
If we remove too much steel, the blade will become “foiled” (you know… like aluminum foil). In that condition the edge may be difficult to hone because it would flex under its own weight, and if you are good enough to hone it, the resulting shave may not be comfortable, the edge will tend to flex and buckle just before cutting each whisker.

Such is the life of a razor restorer; often, he reaches a crossroads and asks… "do I want a display item? Or a shaver?".
When cleaning rusted/pitted hollow ground we often compromise and live with a few blemishes.

These rules apply to the tang as well, if pitting is deep around the manufacturer’s mark, you may have to make the same decisions. If the mark is deeper than the pits then you may be in luck because there is plenty of steel at the tang, however if the mark is shallow you may want to keep the few minor pits along with the mark rather than have clean tang and a razor without provenance.
However, if there are no marks on the rear of the tang or fancy work on the spine then you can go “medieval” and polish them to mirror… indeed, those parts are the easiest to clean… don’t forget the tail.

Lastly, though the mark is deep on this razor I could have removed all traces of the pits… but then you wouldn’t get to see her lovely “battle scars”…. ok… ok, maybe I was just lazy lolololol… but you have to admit, it looks much better than it was.

Up next, we discuss scale cleanup, and “pin tail” on this baby using the original lock washers…. Why did you think we went through all the trouble to preserve the lock washers?

A beauty in process. You have done a great job with it. Keep the photos coming PLEASE !!

Here we are almost done.
In the first photo you see the polished scales and wedge piece. As said previously, the scales were in excellent condition, they were un-warped and only needed light wet sanding, starting with 2K grit w/d paper to remove light scratches and then a final polish to bring out the shine… about 10 minutes work…. Bakelite scales are very easy to sand and polish by hand so power tools are often not necessary.
Incidentally, if you decide to use power, be cautious when using the Dremmel, the supplied wheels are small and the tool spins at high RPM, if you “linger” on one spot, heat will quickly burn the bakelite and you will have to re-sand the area, a low RPM buffer with a large wheel to spread the load works better.

In this second photo a crowded collection of pivot parts, the blade and scales at the pivot end, and in the center of the photo, a pair of new brass bearings, the salvaged pair of lock washers and a new nickel silver pin. You can see the close-up photos, the pin is flared (mushroomed) just enough to keep the lock-washer from falling off.
A quick point:
Normally, before cutting the length for pin from the supply rod, we would place the rod in a vice, flair the end with the ball peen hammer, then assemble the razor’s pivot end (or butt end) complete with blade, bearings and lock washers, then we cut the rod for the pin from the supply rod, that way we only cut the length we need for the pin and there would be very little waste. In this case I’ve already assembled, measured and cut the length just a tiny bit longer than I needed… it’s OK to cut a little too long than too short… we can file it shorter… but we cannot file it longer.

We also made new bearings from brass sheet the size and thickness found in most vintage razors. We like bearings; they are a buffer between the hard steel blade and the soft scale material while providing good friction with little pressure from the lock-washer and pin.
Incidentally if you are interested in making your own washers you may follow these links for some great ideas.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...l-washers.html
http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...e-spacers.html

The last three photos are views of re-pinned butt end with a new pin, original white wedge spacer and lock-washers.

Coming up in our next post we see photos of the razor fully assembled and “hone ready”. Then “post honing” photos so you’ll see the hone were (or new were) we put on the blade so don’t go away.

great work...would like to know exactly what you use on the scales to get them to look so good, have tried fine grit wetsandpaper with so so results...yours look really great

Here we are, she is all assembled and ready for the hones. She is not perfect, but if you wrinkle at her the freckles, you may want to go back to the earlier pix, refresh you memory, look at her now… Face Worthy?

Pinning is one of those tasks that will make-or-break a razor (most likely the scales), and more so if the scales are vintage bakelite. Bakelite is very brittle, and you will be saddened should you go through all that effort to clean and polish, only to have them brake at this final step.

Very light taps around the edge of the pin head, the lighter you go, the less likely you will break the scales if you accidentally hit them. You only want to deform the pin head so it mushroom and hold the lock washer in place against the scales. Remember you don’t want to hit the pin like you do the head of a nail because unlike a nail, the pin has no where to go, hit the pin too hard and the excess energy will start to bend the shaft of the pin. Some folks anneal the pin to make it softer before pinning so they can get away with lighter taps.
In fact, if only tightening the pivot of an already working razor, also use light taps around the head, this will make the head flare and curl some more to press harder against the lock washer and in turn against the scales which makes the joint tighter.

It is also important that the length of the pin be just right, too long, and by the time the joint is tight the mushroom gets too big and “spill over” the sides of the lock washer, too short and there won’t be enough material to hold the lock washer.

Finally, the restore is done… but not quite, now we will hone and test shave to see if this no-name razor can “cut it”… and then in our final post will see how much hone were it cost to get her shave ready… see you then.

great job..should make a great razor, considering you restore it yourself

Onward and Milward!!!

Great job, Smythe. Way to bring something back from the verge of the trashcan. It's so great how much life is left in vintage razors when they're in someone's capable hands.

Chris L