Thread: 3 Razors, want to clean them up myself

Was wondering if i could ask a little advice?

So what we have is 3 german razors, a Tuckmar, looks to be a 5/8 extra hollow, possibly a singer, another stamped Garantie Solingen with "finest silver steel, extra hollow ground, made in germany" etched on the front and like a diamond engraved pattern on the spine (although it looks to be somewhere between 1/2 and 1/4 hollow based on the SRP chart), and a Silver Ring 1027, 6/8 and dead on half hollow. All round points.

All have hone wear, the least being a mm the worst being maybe 3 mm flattening of sides of the spine. This doesn't bother me too much as i think they're all sharpenable and to be fair they were owned by a friends grandafather who had them for 60 odd years and only stopped using them 3 years ago when he passed away. The hone wear seems pretty even in terms of being symetrical on both sides, and consistent width down the length. the tuckmar is perhaps the worst for wear

There doesn't seem to be much rust, just staining and darkening, and what rust their was rubbed off. Today i got some warm water with kitchen cleaner diluted and degunged the scales and as far round the pin as i could. Its going to take more than autsol to polish up the blades though. i did have a good go with it though.

Have read the wiki so i know what grades of sandpaper I need to buy (i have no power tools, so this is all going to be by hand), am going to find a peening hammer because i want to unpin everything. I was going to try filing the pins to get them off, is a set of needle files best for this?

No honing involved yet as it's pointless until they're clean and i can't hone anyway. Not sure if they just need a good honing with a 4000/8000 or something similar or whether they need the bevel reset.

For filing the pins, will you be keeping the scales? I put electrical tape around the pins before I begin to file. I use a small metal file, and that seems to work fine. Be careful when you are punching them out. Very gentle.

After the sanding and buffing, you'll need to reset the bevels on the razors. You can do this with the 4k Norton, it just make take a bit of time. Soak the stone and get up a really good slurry. Then you're off to the races.

EDIT: Do you have pics that you can post?

I'll be keeping the scales yes, they're in perfect condition, where a bit gunky until i cleaned them. look to be celluloid. I don't actually have any hones at the minute, was just to get an idea really, but i figure if i'm going to learn how restore myself and hone, it should be on these rather than on brand new or NOS ones or ones with minimal wear. These aren't sacrifical though, i do want to get them going a shave with them. Love that someone used them for so many years until recently and would like to continue that.

Pics:







apologies for the quality, all i have is my phone cam..

by the way, those aren't chips on the edge, just marking

Those look like a great place to start. A bit of staining, and a few little pits.

Those should clean up really nice. You'll be able to put those into your rotation, and look back on them when you've done a few more. You'll see your learning curve.

Cheers Maxi i appreciate the assessment, i don't have the experience for ebay specials, so when my mate had these i was delighted. Got them quite cheap as well.

Have found a place in the uk that does next day delivery on Norton combo stones so was going to get a 4000/8000, a lapping stone, maybe a 12k chinese from the invisible edge in the uk, and a needle file.

Question, do i need a punch and hammer for knocking out the pins or can i prise them apart if i file the top enough?

I'm also Buying a new strop with linen component, so my old nicked up one without is going to get resurfaced and Either CrO2 or cerium oxide.

Will buy the sandpaper locally, i think i can get a peening hammer and the invisible edge also does repinning kits.

Three months in now and my logic is that i'm able to keep an edge with a strop on it's own, and I'm going to have to learn this sometime, and i think I'm ready to start learning it. Also I really just want to be able to do this myself, full cleans and resto's

Was going to use the pasted strop for refreshing if i'm away for long periods with work,

One of the things about pins that you need to be careful with is rust. Over time, it has a tendency to bind object together. This may not be the case with your razors, but I've encountered pins that were attached to the washers, and difficult to remove.

I would not suggest "prying" anything. Those tiny screwdrivers for electronic devices work well....if you whack too hard with the hammer, the screwdriver bends. Anyway...a 1/16" nail punch works well, also with the caveat that it is tapered....so you need to be careful of that. I have one that i've taken to a bench grinder, and taken the taper to 1/16" for about an inch and a half in length. It works nicely.

Another mention, if this is your first try...take a piece of electrical tape and loosely secure the blade so that it doesn't bounce all over the place when you're tapping.

Got all my bits and pieces today to get me started, got all the sand paper grits i needed or closest to the stated grit, except for the 2000, but am a long ways from needing that.. Got a needle file a ballpein, a 1/16 straight (not tapered) pin punch.

So i now have the tuckmar disassembled in front of me and have started on 180 grit sandpaper. This is going to tacke a while...

Anyway thought it might be worth keep a little diary on this as i go with lessons learned for the other new guys who want to try this out.

first thing i learned was when filing the pin and washer, don't do what i did an file on top of the peened pin hoping you'll file away material so that the splay disappears and you can just pop the pin out. all i ended up doing was splaying it more as i filed.. this meant that the washer came away but the end of the pin was basically the same Width.. go in from the side.. slowly and gently. I put tape around as maxi said, still managed to mark the scales up a bit, but that was over enthusiasm.. lesson learned.

next thing was, as maxi said tape the blade to stop it bouncing around. This blade however was an extra hollow. I just put tap on the outside of the scale to hold the blade in. it still bounced internal to the scales and i chipped the blade a little.. not like bites, the pieces came away were more like silvers the thickness of spider silk along the edge, so can be honed out probably. Next time i'm going to tape the edge to cushion it as i'm tapping the pinning out. Lesson learned

Don't leave discarded electrical tape lying around as it ends up sticking to your arm and taking hair with it as you pull it off..

Last thing for now, i have no workshop, no tools, but i think i'd like something to cushion everything as I'm sanding, maybe a silicon mat or cutting mat or mousepad. right now i'm working on my coffee table with kitchen tissue under the blade

On the upside i have the scales in one piece

have taken a few pics, but will post them when i've done more work with the 180 grit and got the metal stain free

cheers

Simon

Pics as promised

disassembled



Chipping i was talking about



And finally after 90 mins on 180 grit. Think i should have started on 50 or 120 maybe.. some pitting etc there. can buy some tomorrow. This is just one side, still have to do the other and the spine etc etc



Here's a question.. Am i going to need something lower than a 4000/8000 norton to sort this edge out or can i still hone the damage out with it?

I wouldn't go to any larger grits now for several reasons. a) you're starting to lose the tuckmar stamp and b) I can't tell from your photos, but if your razor is very hollow you want to be careful getting it too thin, that can be the death of it.

There comes a point where you need to decide to leave it with a few battle scars, or risk ruining it. If you still have plenty of steel, carry on carefully, but from your images it looks to me like you've just about got it.

I set a bevel once on my Norton 4k side, but it took way longer than I thought it would - hours. If I were to do another one I'd do it with a 1k.

As far as those other two, I'd really think about just using some polish and cloth on those. Any blade sanding and you'll likely lose those etchings. They look pretty good to me as they are to tell you the truth.

hey tony

The stamp is actually just the quality of my crappy phone cam, it's there and nicely defined, no danger of losing it yet, actually there's another stamp on the other side saying "made from *rayser Ellison Best Sheffield Silver Steel in solingen Germany " , the * denoting a letter thats been lost through wear i guess.

however i concede the point that on a razor this thin, it'll be worth leavng the 180 grit behind and moving up to polishing, most of the staining seems to be gone and the pitting is minimal.

Any idea on how to get in between jimps?

just have the back of the spine to do then up to the next grade

The other 2, well again it's the pics.. they look better than they are. was thinking of masking the etching with tape as those are pretty clean and getting everything else