Thread: What are these blade decorations made of, and how do I avoid ruining them?

Hi guys,

I just picked these three razors up at an antique store. I am going to take their scales off and clean up the blades. They don't appear to have any rust on the face, the rusts on them is all on the tangs or jimps.

I would like to clean up the faces to remove the stains, and if possible get them nice and shiny again. But, I'd also like to preserve the decoration. What are these decorations made of? What kinds of products would destroy the decorations, and what might I use to clean/sand/polish the blades that might not destroy them?

Thanks!

Boker King Cutter


Boker Edelweiss


Brosem Hamburg Ring

The gold was on the King Kutter is gone, there is no saving it, on the second razor lots of polish and elbow grease, on the third one, the Hamburg Ring, you can sand the blade beneath the etching and around the etching, anything too close to the etching may require something like a dental pick to clean off. After thayt its back to the polish and elbow grease. These will never be like new again but they can be cleaned up and made serviceable. It will be worth the effort to get them cleaned up and honed as these are great blades and will shave quite well.

So the bottom two are etching and the top one is gold wash? Ok thanks.

What kind of polish do you recommend nun2sharp? I've seen Maas recommended, but I checked quite a few stores near me yesterday and nobody seems to carry it. Do you know of a common brand I might be able to find that would do the trick?

1 king cutter scary discoloration , pitting in the edge
just about any polishing effort will damage this plating
and you dont yet know if the steel will be able to produce an edge

2 edelweiss looks like etching and depending on the depth it may survive the use of metal polish

3 brosem this looks like its going to have a fair bit of pitting left when your done
and again the edge is a consern to me


so to me i would suggest taking 1 and 3 tape the spine and hone to see if they can hold an edge
a light sanding or rubbing with polish is my suggestion for the Edelweiss before sending out for honing

Originally Posted by janivar123

1 king cutter scary discoloration , pitting in the edge
just about any polishing effort will damage this plating
and you dont yet know if the steel will be able to produce an edge

+1. That discoloration could very well be problematic as it looks like the razor was heated at some point. It can probably be polished up to look good but this is definitely a razor that should be taken to the stones first before being cleaned.

Make sure you can get an edge on it before spending time and effort shining it up.

Yeah I was wondering about that. Will do on the hones first. Thanks guys.

Originally Posted by RobertH

I've seen Maas recommended, but I checked quite a few stores near me yesterday and nobody seems to carry it. Do you know of a common brand I might be able to find that would do the trick?

I don't know where you are but Ace Hardware usually has Maas. Flitz is another common polish that is easy to find.

I went out at lunch today and picked up some Mother's Aluminum and Chrome polish that I saw the fellow that made the "Straight Razor Restoration Start To Finish" video uses. I'm in Canada so no Ace Hardware. Home Depot didn't have it, Canadian tire didn't have it or PEEK which another thread recommended (and found at Canadian Tire). I'm guessing not much straight razor polishing going on around here heh.

The only place I haven't checked that I thought might have it is this one big automotive parts store that they have here (Lordco), I bet they would have it but I haven't got one near enough to check.

Originally Posted by RobertH

I went out at lunch today and picked up some Mother's Aluminum and Chrome polish that I saw the fellow that made the "Straight Razor Restoration Start To Finish" video uses. I'm in Canada so no Ace Hardware. Home Depot didn't have it, Canadian tire didn't have it or PEEK which another thread recommended (and found at Canadian Tire). I'm guessing not much straight razor polishing going on around here heh.

The only place I haven't checked that I thought might have it is this one big automotive parts store that they have here (Lordco), I bet they would have it but I haven't got one near enough to check.

Don't know which specific polish that is but go easy on the mothers. Some of that stuff is designed for cleaning wheels and has serious chemicals in it to take car of brake dust.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Don't know which specific polish that is but go easy on the mothers. Some of that stuff is designed for cleaning wheels and has serious chemicals in it to take car of brake dust.

Thanks, I've tried it out on the other blade I'm fixing up and it seemed to do a pretty good job. I'll post a picture in the restoration forum as I have another question about it.

I went with it because it's the only one of all the ones I've found searching for metal polish on the forums here that I could find in any of the stores I went to. I think it worked ok.

Here's a link to the product:

Mothers® Mag & Aluminum Polish