Thread: Help with polishing.

Hello all.
I'm very new to Straight Razors so please bear with me.
I have always loved the look/idea of them but never owned one till last weekend. While looking through some old stuff I found my Grand Fathers WWII grooming kit which contained about 6 or 7 Bengall razors. Due to a very long story which I won't go into we don't actually have anything/much from my Grand Father & he died just after I was born. My dad gave me one of them and needless to say it holds huge sentimental value to me.
It had a little rust in patches along the blade but other wise is in sweet condition. I got some steel wool and removed the rust and then spent a few hours polishing it up with some metal polish. It's come up absolutely beautiful except two little patches where the worst of the rust used to be. I have removed all the discoloration but on an angle you can still see where the rust used to be. If I keep going with the polish will I remove it or am I wasting my time. I can't make up my mind if it's ever so slightly eaten into the metal. I don't want to take to it with anything more aggressive due to the sentimental value.
I'm sorry for the bad pics. The iPhone doesn't do very good macro and the poor lighting doesn't do it justice.

Welcome to SRP. The state you have that in looks pretty serviceable. Call it done from a cosmetic standpoint. Your Grandfather had good taste in razors

You can call that little part "character". I think your razor looks stellar, and is ready for a honing and a shave.

Looks like it's time to convert another !

MOUAAHOUAHAHAHA !!!

P.s. Nice razor !
P.P.s Welcome to SRP !! If you'd like to take your grand-father's razor out for a spin, you found the right place to learn how.

That's a gorgeous blade! Definitely found a Benz with which to start your shaving career.

Enjoy this beautiful razor.

What a gem you have! You a so lucky and blessed to have it passed to you. The only thing I would do is to have it honed "sharpened" by one of the honemasters you find on this site. Get yourself a good strop and start to practice with it, my suggestion is to use a butter knife. Believe it or not, stropping is not as easy as it appears. It takes time to properly acquire the gist of it. Your Grandfather's razor is your gateway to the relm of men. Good luck!!

jahaworth;

The razor looks to be in pretty good condition. Those little cosmetic rust 'blushes' can be removed, but using an out-of-the-tube metal polish probably won't do it.

In this case, you would have to go back and repolish the blade on a buffing machine: first starting out with a coarser polishing compound, gradually working up through to the finer grades. This could mean a few hours of work, and then only if you have the proper range of polishing compounds as well as a suitable buffing devices and wheels. Also, there is a very real possibility of totally ruining the blade if you do it incorrectly (burning the steel, having the wheel catch and throw the blade, etc.). Believe it or not, you could also try to refinish the blade by means of hand polishing, but then the time investment really goes up.

The question is whether or not any of that effort will be worth it to you just now. That razor looks perfectly serviceable (when honed properly) and those blemishes will not affect the shaving performance one bit.

- Ignatz

Thanks everyone. I will leave it as is I do want to get someone to hone it correctly but I suspect down here in New Zealand it may be quite hard to find someone.

Glen24: I have just this morning had a Cattaraugus delivered which I brought off our local auction site which I'm going to have a go at doing something with.

Here are couple more pics, hopefully my actual camera takes better ones then my phone.

Nice Job! Your Grandfather would be Very Proud!

As far as honing, try getting a hold of Member Profile - Straight Razor Place Classifieds

If you can't get a hold of him via the link. Look for his Ads in the Classified (johnmrson), you should be able to get a hold of him there!

I purchased a razor from him that he had honed and he did a Great Job!!! Still haven't needed to touch it up!

He's in your neck of the woods! Australia! Perhaps he can help you! :

Smooth Shaving!