Thread: C.F. Wolfertz Restoration Questions...and Advice Needed

As I said in another post, I'm new to this whole straight razor thing. I recently bought a CF Wolfertz straight razor in an antique shop for $12. I've cleaned it up a bit and I have a few questions:

1. I cleaned and sanded the blade, but I didn't feel the need to polish it to a mirror shine. I pretty much got the dirt off, removed the rust, sanded off the blemishes (except for one on the spine and another on the tip) and then used steel wool followed by metal polishing compound to polish it to a smooth light-gunmetal finish with a nice shine. The actual shaving edge is clean. Aesthetically, I like the look. But, is it an acceptable way to finish a blade for shaving? Basically, do I have to put the effort into making it look like a new blade or is that unnecessary?

2. When I bought the razor, it actually had a nice edge. All the cleaning of the blade itself has dulled the edge. Is that normal? If so, I believe I can bring the edge back with a 4000/8000 waterstone. Will that work for me? I've sharpened knives before and read a few articles/watched a few videos on razor honing so I'm confident I can get the job done.

Now, I just have to save the money for a waterstone. And a strop. I'll get there.

after all that I left out my third question...

3. I don't have the means or skill to remove the scales to really clean the razor. Is there any way I can get the last bits of dirt out of the joint? WD-40? Anything good or bad?

Do yourself a favor and instead of saving up for the water stones, send the blade out to a honemeister and let them sharpen the blade for you. This way you have a gage what what shave ready sharp is. Knowing what a razor is supposed to feel like makes a huge difference now as you will get much better shaves, and helps later in time when you want to sharpen your own blades. Let alone sharpening a razor is different then a knife, and since it's a older blade there could be complications with the blade such as warping, hone wear etc which require knowledge of how to correct in order to properly hone the razor. The video's make it look easy and with skill and knowledge it can be accomplished, but there is a learning curve and every blade requires different teniques which take time to develop and understand.

As for the cleaning, sounds like you got the important parts done. The razor needs to be clean for health reasons but it dose not need to be fully restored. Most of the guys do that as it's a hobby and they enjoy doing it. I have quite a few blades that look like they went to hell band back and still shave like the best of them, as well as some new blades and one i just recently did a full restore on.

For the last bits in the scales at the joints use dental floss and some MASS for FRITS or similar metal polish. Takes some time but it will get the job done with out having to remove the scales. After you clean them out put some oil in there to keep the corrosion down.

thanks. I actually contacted Larry at whippeddog earlier today about honing. I think I will send it to him for sure then. I've read that you can use a barber hone to maintain a honed edge, but that's something I'll discuss with him, unless someone has advice on that front.

And I don't quite understand the acronym you used...what do MASS and FRITS mean? I have some metal polish that I used on the blade (Brasso?) and it did an pretty good job...got up some dirt I had missed and made it feel really smooth.

Great idea on the dental floss. I didn't even think of it.

Mass And Fritz are both metal polishes much like brasso but one's that most of the guys here recommend. Toothpicks also work well along with the dental floss. I would highly suggest you send the razor out, at least just one time as I said. After that you can always try and sharpen your blade from there but then you will know what it is supposed to shave like, and have a good number of shaves under your belt. First thing to focus on is stropping, as that is more important then a barber stone / etc for keeping your edge keen. As for maintaing the edge that a strop wont take care of there are many ways in which you can do so. A strop with one side pasted with Chromium oxide, will work for quite some time, then of course after that no longer works, there are many options and everyone has their own preferences such as a barber hone, coticule, 10k, 12k or other finishing stone etc. Do some searching on keeping your blade sharp and you'll find a tone of information, you will need to find what works best for you and your budget.

You've definitely convinced me to send it out, so I'll be doing that this week.

I tried the dental floss without much effect. I had tried the toothpick approach earlier as well to no avail. However, I used a trimmed-down Qtip and it was fantastic. It got in all the little nooks of the pivot and got out more gunk than was on the rest of the razor combined. Tomorrow I'll give it a second go to get whatever's left in there.

I'm on a tight budget in regards to equipment (which is one of the reasons why I'm making the switch to straight razors) so whippeddog's site has been fantastic. I plan on starting out with one of the strops from that site until I'm able to move up.

If you on a budget get a inexpensive strop to start out with as you will most likely nick your first strop when learning. Later in time after you get the hang of it you can get a better one. At least thats my thinking YMMV. I have also heard of gents using newspaper to strop with not sure if you can use that trick for the long haul but should get you by for a bit.

G'luck and enjoy the journey.

For U2

Just for the record, that polish is named "FLITZ" - nor Fritz.

Salespeople might not be able to help you if you give then an incorrect product name. Just trying to help.

Jerry

Lol thanks thats where spelling becomes important!

Originally Posted by mrsell63

For U2

Just for the record, that polish is named "FLITZ" - nor Fritz.

Salespeople might not be able to help you if you give then an incorrect product name. Just trying to help.

Jerry

Answering the questions.

1) How highly you polish the blade is to you yourself. As a general rule the more pitting you have to remove the more metal you have to remove so there will be times you will stop and not remove all the pitting and other times you will go for the mirror finish. It depends on the quality of the blade.

2) Any time you take sandpaper to a blade to clean it you will destroy the edge. For honing (i.e. sharpening if you're a knife user) I would recommend a 1K ceramic Shapton for bevel setting and then the 4K/8K for sharpening - although you could go to a BBW/Coticule natural combination stone if you want to spend a big chunk of extra money for a better result.

3) A good metal polish does the trick. Mother's Mag polish works well, and I am going to try out "pre-lim" surface cleaner which a coin collector has put me onto. MAAS and Flitz are recommended.