Thread: Joh. Engstrom Frameback and Ox

For your consideration:

A Joh Engstrom Frameback came in the mail today, and I attacked it with the usual suspects, MAAS and Dremel with various bits and felts. Got pretty far with it but there were some trouble spots lingering.

I'm not even sure what gave me the idea, but I took a rubbing alcohol pad and dipped it into my jar of super white cerium oxide. The powder was transformed into a paste which I was able to rub lightly over the blade. Eventually the alcohol would evaporate leaving the white powder behind. I rubbed this off, the little pad would be very dark grey, almost black by this point. I repeated this process 3 more times. I never used very much pressure, nor did I rub too quickly because, for those of you keep score at home, rubbing a razor with an alcohol pad is exactly how I sliced my thumb open. So I stayed below the speed limit, watched my angles, and kept the tires on the road.

Now the razor, especially the frameback, shines quite a bit now, much more than with just MAAS off it all.

I'd like to clean up the tang a bit more, but I'm pretty happy with the way everything polished up. I left some water on the tang from honing it and it got dark and red quickly. I scrubbed and oiled it to hopefully halt the process. Not bad for having no buffing wheels or compounds. Now, if there was a way to combine my cerium oxide with a dremel bit WITHOUT spraying the room like it's Christmas, that would be sweet. But I dig the ol' school elbow grease method too.

I like this razor, it looks neat, and is the thinnest and lightest frameback I've seen so far. I'll have to wait a while to shave test it, no doubt it'll be sweet. Why? 'Cause I cleaned and honed it, that always makes the razor burn sweeter.

Dig the before and after pics.

Comments? Questions? Concerns?