What's the longest handsanding resto anyone has done?

Just wondering what the longest time anyone has spent handsanding a razor back to a thing of beauty???

I have been handsanding a Red Injun 102 for the past couple of nights. There are about eight pin tip sized pits left spread over the spine and tang area. You really have to look to see them, but I do and I focus on them. And, being my first attempt (with pics to come in future post!) at a complete, with repinning, restoration I am trying to get it as mint as possible. But, after two nights just trying to get all the pits out, I'm starting to wonder...

BTW I'm currently using 3M 320 grit paper to get stains and pits out. I'll progress up to 1500 paper, and use the new dremel once I'm satisfied. I've been starting with 400 paper, on previous razors. But, this one had some deep stains and two rust spots. I'm thinking this might be my new daily shaver (hence my desire for perfection). I had an Injun 101, and thought highly of it, before selling.

I just finished restored a Wiss by hand a couple night ago, I'm currently finishing up the scales. It took me about 5 days, although I only worked on it a couple hours a day. It is a tiring exercise, but completely worth it :)

Its going to take a long time getting pits out with 320 grit, and sometimes you just cant get them out. I mean there is only so much steel that you can remove before being detrimental to the razor. But if you want to get them all out I would try something like 120 grit.
And to answer the question at the top of the thread, this one took me 10-15 hours of hand sanding. http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...bad-shape.html
Grant

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Peasel

... I'll progress up to 1500 paper, and use the new dremel once I'm satisfied.

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Since you did say "new" dremel, please do be careful that you don't ruin all that work (or end up with a blade fragment stuck in your forehead)!

Not a razor restore, but I know that my mother spent about 2 months (an hour or two per day) hand sanding her new sashimi knife. She has a lot more patience than I do. I think she started at 220 and finished on 600 grit. It looks great.

I'm impatient, so I'll usually start hand sanding coarser, like 150. Once the geometry is correct, progressing up through the grits is relatively quick, (as long as you can ignore the errant scratches that bother my mom so much).

Phillip

Wow. I was worried about dipping below the 400 grit range! I guess I had no real worries.

Baldy, nice work with the Kropp.

Northpaw, I'm glad I was wearing glasses when I was taking the pins out! A chip of washer bounced right off my lens.

My longest hand sand has been the Two Beasties that I just posted in the Customs section. I'd say that W and B probably took me 20 or so hours, just sanding. Then another bit buffing it. The Frederick Reynolds was not far off.

I'd say the sanding process took me a good three weeks. It felt like it was never going to end!

You shouldnt be afraid to start lower than 400. Most people start on 220 to remove pitting and then work up to 2000 or higher if it's available.

Good to know. Going to 220 probably would have saved me some serious time.

Longest resto ever? ...I'll let you know when it's done. Usually, if something is taking a long time, I put it aside and work through smaller projects because that makes me feel more productive. The downside is that, at some point in the future (or periodically while I'm waiting for new stuff to come in), I end up with all the things I didn't want to do in the first place.

I have a 1/4 hollow that I spent a minimum of 16 hours hand sanding, and even that still getting rid of all the pitting. Went through 4 or 5 sheets of 180 grit emery paper too.

Got it polished up and honed it too, but I hate the sight of the thing and will never shave with it.

20 hours or so? Something like that, just the blade sanding.
Oh and really drop down to 120 and work upwards from there. At 320 grit it will take far too long to remove pits.

Even 150-grit removes material more slowly than you would think. I measured the edge thickness of a blade after grinding and after hand sanding. I started sanding with 150-grit, trying to thin the blade out a little. All told, the results were barely measurable, with only five ten-thousandths of an inch removed. I guess this isn't too surprising considering how long it takes to creep up on the final thickness with a 150-Y belt on the grinder.

PDobson, what do you measure with? How do you get down to 0.0005 or the ten thousandths range??? Impressive!

I have a very nice set of Mitutoyo calipers that consistently read to half of a thousandth. It's also possible to interpolate with a quality micrometer. I purchased all of my precision measurement tools used which saves a lot of money.

Well, after my first real piece of crud, I had about 10 hours hand sanding, starting with 220 grit - 2000, followed by 3 1/2 hours of hand buffing. I use the dremmel with a 2" buffing wheel with 3 different compounds.

So my first resto took over 13 hours of hand work to complete. :)