Thread: To save or to clean.

Friends, your councils are necessary to me. I tired to think already. I try to collect Wostenholm razors. I have found the good razor(7/8, nice scales) with an engraving on one side of the blade, but there there is a small rust. What to do? To leave as is and save an engraving or to clean, and make as on the other side.

Save it! Get the blade up to about 125 degrees or so (maybe in the oven or with a hairdryer) and lather it with Linseed oil. It'll keep the rust from spreading and give it a pretty cool surface finish. Just make sure to oil the surface after every use.

Alex, it all depends on what you want to do with it. Is that original on the back side of the blade? If it is and you are just collecting for the sake of collecting, you should probably leave it as is. Any alterations would de-value the razor for collecting. But if you are going to use it, the best bet would be to either sand with progressive grits of wet/dry sand paper or you can use a buffer with varying degrees of buffing compound to bring it to nice and bright! It all boils down to personal preference. Me, I would take it to a buffer and clean her up like new and then hone her for use. The lettering will all but disappear, but you can hardly see it now any way. But that's my opinion. If you need somebody to clean it up for you, I would gladly do it. Good Luck and God Bless!

I want to use this razor ...and to save engraving.
The back side was in this condition.

I try to steer clear of razors with etching on the blade for this very same problem.

I like razors I can use, so I say clean it and put it to some good use.

nate

Have you tried superfine steelwool.not your normal brill-o pad,but superfine about 4-0 or 4 aut however you say it.I've used this with a non adrasive metal polish like mothers and gottn pretty good results without scratching.as a matter of fact I use this same steel wool on my truck windows to remove water spots for it will not scratch glass,but a green scotch-brite pad will scratch the crap out of things so don't use that.

Have you tried naval jelly to remove the rust?

You might try sending it to someone with a tumbler- they can really clean a blade up AND save most/all of the etching, provided it's a good etch.

Naval Jelly is NOT, NOT, NOT for removing rust! It simply converts exposed steel to a harder oxide.... and will corrode and pit a razor very, very badly!

My Mother used to say,"You can't have your cake and eat it too." So if you want a nice shiny blade you can't have your etching. I would hit it with metal polish such as Maas, Semichrome or whatever or as mentioned before 0000 steel wool and Break Free or something like that and be satisfied with a bit of tarnish.