Thread: Blade Restoration

Well I got a set of razors yesterday, and long story short I decided I would start doing a complete restore to one of the razors that had a crack in the scales. Its my first time ever restoring a rezor so im pretty new at this, Ive looked at the wiki link and I started out with a 220 grit M3 sand paper that I had in my garage, I'm an hour into sanding and it looks a world better than it did, but there is still marks that wont seem to come out with the 220, should I just use more elbow grease and do a bit longer with the 220, or move to an 80 or a 100, or just go down in coarseness to a 400?

Don't use too much elbow grease or you'll create scratches . Just let the paper do the work. If you don't like what you see & the blade is thick enough to tolerate a coarser grit you can drop down but an hour isn't a long time in the world of handsanding

Regarding the sandpaper, is it the wet/dry variety? That's what you'll want to use for razors. Also, if you add a drop of light weight oil, like 3 in 1 oil, you will make faster progress.

Originally Posted by Utopian

Regarding the sandpaper, is it the wet/dry variety? That's what you'll want to use for razors. Also, if you add a drop of light weight oil, like 3 in 1 oil, you will make faster progress.

And Smoother !!! using the oil does both, and the harder you press the deeper the scratches the deeper the scratches the longer to polish them out

On another point, the smaller the jump in grit the easier it is to get rid of scratches. I wouldnt go from 220 to 400 if you can get something in between. I have 240, 280, 320 and 360. It might sound like more work but it really isnt IMO.
Grant

Wrap the sandpaper around an old cork.

Can I take away pitting with 220? It seems like its not going away very fast, I just dont want to scratch the blade to much.

It's unclear if you're using the abrasive by hand or mounted to a dowel/form.
I would suggest using a series of dowels, cut to about 1 1/2 -2" length and adhered w/emery/abrasive papers. I find that hardware store sandpapers are unusable. Try searching out a jewellery supply house for some emery papers.
I feel that using hand finishing techniques with the least amount of use from a polishing aide keeps all edges/shapes crisp. You'll see a lot of nicely polished pieces out there but they're lacking the "crispness" of a hand worked/loved finish.
It just takes a bit of time.