Thread: Safety sanding jig questions

Having seen some of the scare stories of razor restoration (and I thought shaving with the things was bad enough!), I like the idea of making one of those L-shaped sanding jigs to hold the blade still whilst I work on it.

1. The design that uses strong magnets seems a great idea -- stops the blade moving full-stop, thereby drastically reducing the chance of it biting me. But how do you get it off again, safely and without scratching it?

2. For hollow-ground razors, do you mould the support beneath the blade to fill the hollow? I've not seen it on the pictures I've seen.

Originally Posted by peg20

Having seen some of the scare stories of razor restoration (and I thought shaving with the things was bad enough!), I like the idea of making one of those L-shaped sanding jigs to hold the blade still whilst I work on it.

1. The design that uses strong magnets seems a great idea -- stops the blade moving full-stop, thereby drastically reducing the chance of it biting me. But how do you get it off again, safely and without scratching it?

2. For hollow-ground razors, do you mould the support beneath the blade to fill the hollow? I've not seen it on the pictures I've seen.

SO I haven't actually tried it yet due to getting sidetracked on other projects, but the jig I made is a 2x6 with holes drilled in it for magnets to mount flush in (with wiggle room for epoxy) with a chunk of 1x drilled to the back to keep things from sliding back. To that I stapled a piece of bicycle inntertube to make sure it really doesn't slip. I've also got some other scraps of innertube cut up to place under the blade while sanding to it doesn't get damaged. I could probably add a couple more layers and end up with a hump that would offer support.

That sounds a neat and simple solution. Just to clarify; the stapled inner tube is over the magnets (on the base) or on the "sticking-up-bit" of 1x1?

Ok, so it's currently buried in the garage and I'm not feeling motivated enough to dig it out right now, so here's a crappy mspaint .gif that I made of it that probably took me longer to make than it would have to have dug the thing out and photographed it, but that's just the kind of mood I'm in right now.


razorjig by harner.bill, on Flickr

I currently have one piece of inner tube on it. One thin one on the back stop so that it's less likely to slide. I've been using a piece of cardstock over the magnets but I'm thinking it will work best if I just cut another piece of inner tube to staple over the magnets. That way it really shouldn't slide. The only downside is that rubber can sometimes be a bit of a bear to clean off if there's a lot of sanding going on. On the upside, I blow out tubes in my mtn bike a couple times a summer so I've got a ready supply. Not to mention that I should be able to get a good 8-10 pieces of rubber out of each tube.

Originally Posted by peg20

Having seen some of the scare stories
....snip....

Scan the archives and the WiKi. There is some good
stuff.

One hint is you can tape the sharp edge while you
hand sand the bulk of the blade.

Try a "site" search on Google. Something like:

site http://straightrazorpalace.com/: hand sanding

Finds links like:
Hand sanding a blade - Straight Razor Place Wiki