Thread: What to do first (Joseph Smith & Sons)

Hey all,

I've just acquired a Joseph Smith & Sons "Celebrated Razor" 3415, 7/8 wedge with a barber point.

The blade is in good condition with a few stained spots and a nicked edge.

I've been slogging through the plethora of information at this site (it's great btw) and I have a few questions.

Do I take care of the nicks first? I know Undream didn't in his awesome resto movies.

And when sanding the blade, it's almost in really good condition, do I risk wrecking that with a lower grit, or can I get away with removing what little pitting there is with a heck of a lot of high grit sanding?

If you have any other comments or suggestions I'd greatly appreciate it. This is my first restoration attempt.

With a blade such as that the first thing I do is see if it will hone through whatever pitting is at the bevel to good steel. If it won't hone to good steel at the bevel and winds up chipping and swiss cheesing as I go I dont waste my time with any further restoration.

First you should pray that there is good steel under those messes at the bevel, then you should do as Jimmy said.

Good luck.

What Jimmy said.

Once I have established that the blade is basically sound, I blunt the edge (the process of sanding it will make it somewhat sharp again, depending on how much sanding you do.

I don't think that there is much point using a fine grit paper to get rid of the pitting - you will be there for days! But - like you say, it will be less deleterious to the blade on the whole - but I think you will give up before the pitting is gone. You have to decide how much you are going to restore it - strike a balance between effort and looks and functionality.

I use as course a grit as get rid of the majority of the pits, then go up in grit sizes. If you try to keep the sanding direction a few degrees different for each grit, you should be able to see when all the lines have gone from the previous grit.

These days I use a slow buffing machine and use red-head cement to coat mops with grit - much faster. It can be done by hand of course, but you will have to take much longer over it - mind you, you will take that much more pride in the finished article knowing that you have done it all yourself.

One thing I have found is that the 'silver steel' formulations tend to be a bit harder than the other old steel types and take a bit more effort, but YMMV.

Good luck,
Neil

Thanks for the help guys.

I'm now in the process of finding of finding 1k,4k,8k and 10k hones to start up with.
Ironically the local knife shop only carries grits up to 1k.

These guys are dead on the money & a prayer is recommended. The 1K will do what you need for now...seeing if there is good steel at the edge.

Putting a bevel on using a 1k to get past the junk on the edge is the best advise. Be aware that the black stuff usually has pitting under it that may go for miles and sometimes snakes through the steel like worm holes in an apple. I just buffed up a blade for a fellow member that really wanted the black stuff off his blade, which was smooth but had some black stains. Hit it with some 600 greaseless and uncovered pitting under the stain.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by Joed

Putting a bevel on using a 1k to get past the junk on the edge is the best advise. Be aware that the black stuff usually has pitting under it that may go for miles and sometimes snakes through the steel like worm holes in an apple. I just buffed up a blade for a fellow member that really wanted the black stuff off his blade, which was smooth but had some black stains. Hit it with some 600 greaseless and uncovered pitting under the stain.

Good luck.

Do you think I should breadknife the edge, or use the circular motions as shown in the Pyramid Honing guide?

oh and a quick note, I've been looking at some other threads about J. Smith & Sons. Any idea in the range of age of this blade? I was guessing (in the dark) late 1800's because of the tang...

I personally try to avoid breadknifing (not saying that I haven't and don't on occasion), especially on a wedge. I'll usually freehand like you would a pocket knife or tape the spine. Think about all that hard material you will have to go thru before you get an edge back on it if you were to breadknife it. Hollows come back quicker (the metal is removed already" from breadknifing, but wedges are a PITA when trying to restore a bevel. This one will take some time, but that patience may pay off and you could end up with a great shaver. I'd use a rolling "x" patern when freehanding it.

On the age, you are probably in the neighborhood. There is some sort of trade agreement around the mid 1800's (1867?)that started requiring the country of origin put on the tang.