Thread: Restoring advice for a Bengall

Ok so this is the deal I've gotten myself a sweet little razor that I've decided to make into my first restoration project. I have allready started and sanded away all the black spots and all the pitting on the blade and it looks solid in that part now. Although it isnt completely finished through 600 grit and up.



It is a Bengall A-BCL Borlänge Maskinaffär or possibly 4-BCL essentially its a Bengall made for Borlänge machine store. And it fits me like a glove to start with a Swedish sold razor.

It is a 9,5/16 inches or 15mm across the blade and what I guess is a half hollow or 1/4 hollow anyone who can tell from this picture? I know it isnt the best pictures but I don't have access to another camera at the moment.




But the real reason why I post this is because the razor have quite a lot of rust and pitting around the pivot pin and on the tang that is really hard to get out. The pictures is taken after 3 hours of sanding and a bit of Autosol to polish it up and its still really long to go and I think it might be a lot easier if I remove the pin and finish it without the scales.






Also the scales are made of wood and as you can see on the last three pictures they are quite worn and the paint is starting to come of. Do you think it is worth trying to remove them carefully and try to restore them and just replace them if they are too far gone to refurbish or to try and sand them attached to the razor and repaint them?

So what should I do remove the pins and continue after that or just add more elbow grease and continue sanding both the blade and scales still attached to each other?

If you've taken the razor this fair to restore I would remove the blade and continue restoring the razor completely. (and the scales at the same time)

Looking at your pic it looks more to be a near wedge to 1/4 hollow but definitely not a 1/2 hollow.

If those are wooden sales are you sure they are painted? I would just lightly sand those down starting with 220 grit but it would be nice to know what kind of wood we are talking about and if those were truly painted as I have rarely seen painted wooden scales. Dyed or stained maybe but never painted.

They might actually be dyed but I have never seen dye starting to peel of like old plastic paint does. And what Do you think would be the best way to remove the scales? Just going at it with a file would ruin the scales but I've just broken my screwdriver so I can't drill the pin out, anyone with a suggestion on that?

Use a file, but put a couple of layers of masking tape down first and that way you can file to your heart's content and not hurt the scales. Then find something to tap the rod out, amateur I know but it works.

I thought those may be horn at first, but now Im not sure

Thanks I'l try that.

Originally Posted by Scipio

I thought those may be horn at first, but now Im not sure

I don't think that it is horn since the scales are really light and wood like to the touch.

I can add that all in all this razor with the scales attached only weighs 32 grams or 1.12876 oz.

Originally Posted by Maximilian

If you've taken the razor this fair to restore I would remove the blade and continue restoring the razor completely. (and the scales at the same time)

Looking at your pic it looks more to be a near wedge to 1/4 hollow but definitely not a 1/2 hollow.

If those are wooden sales are you sure they are painted? I would just lightly sand those down starting with 220 grit but it would be nice to know what kind of wood we are talking about and if those were truly painted as I have rarely seen painted wooden scales. Dyed or stained maybe but never painted.

IMHO you will not get bad advice from Max, if you are careful you will without a doubt end up with a better finished Razor, that was easier to work on if you descale it.

Best of luck

Originally Posted by Maximilian

If those are wooden sales are you sure they are painted? I would just lightly sand those down starting with 220 grit but it would be nice to know what kind of wood we are talking about and if those were truly painted as I have rarely seen painted wooden scales. Dyed or stained maybe but never painted.

I do have a Japanese razor with painted honoki wood scales, I'll try to take a picture before I'm done sanding them back down to the wood itself.

I finally got time to pick it apart and polish it up and it looks really nice though it has some pitting left that I don't think that I will bother trying to sand out.









Unfortunately the scales seemed like they had laid in water and soaked for a long while deteriorating the wood in them to the point that even sanding just pulverises it. More like driftwood than anything else so I will have to make a set of scales myself. Anyone have a tip to what material I should match these with? Maybe some nice piece of wood.