Thread: First Restore

Ok I am going to try and tackle this razor, full restore, probably just gonna go with new scales. I dont have much experience with straight razor restoration, but I do have quite a lot of experience restoring fine woodworking tools such as hand planes, chisels, spoke shaves etc. Mainly all hand cutting type tools. I have read all the threads on restoring, but still am not too clear on what to do with this blade. Here is what I was thinking....

-Start off sanding down the entire blade, working my way up to 1500 grit
-I will then use a dremel and wool wheel and start buffing out the entire blade
-Once I get to a finish I am pleased with, I will begin honing and probably end on my coticule stone

As far as just the blade goes, does this sound like a reasonable way of going about it? BTW the blade is not as bad as it looks, lots of grime and surface junk. Thanks for the info

Oh and what would you recommend for scales? To tell you the truth, I love woodworking and I do a lot of it myself, but I am just not that into wood scales.....what else would you recommend?? Thanks again for everything, I've been learning a lot of great info from this site!

If you are going to do a restore, you should make yourself a blade safety jig. It helps so much. The link is to Bill Ellis' blog on how to make one.

Sounds like you have the right approach, I'd do the sanding all by hand. Save the dremel for the buffing.

For scales, if you don't mind a lot of sanding, how about some micarta. A little different, but not too different. Pretty easy to work with as well.

Yes I was planning on doing all sanding by hand, and using the dremel for buffing only. I am not too familiar with macarta?? but I will check it out. I also thought about making a mold with a pair of scales I really like, then using fiberglass and resin to build my own set. If I tried this, I would have to use a heavy opaque pigment so the fiberglass strands were not too visible. Either way they would turn out more than strong enough and I can do any color I want.

don't forget to enter it in the first restore contest when you finish up!