Old english razor - scale restoring

Hello!
I just aquired an fredrik reynolds old english razor with yellow bone scales.
I purchased some neatsfoot-oil and sanded the scales and soaked them. However, there apper to be some dirt lodged in the cracks witch the neatsfootoil is suppose to seal.
Is there a neat trick to get this dirt out or do i need to sand it down a bit and learn to live with the dirt thats left deeper in the scales?
It dosn't really show in this pic but all the more brown looking areas are cracks filled with dirt..
Any help would be greatley appreciated.
Attachment 85981

Neatsfoot oil works very well at reconditioning these old horn scales, it is a rejuvenating process, -BUT- it is not a good cleaner or "sealer"

I clean, then sand @320 then leave the scales in a "Baggie" with about 1 tablespoon of oil (marinate :p) overnight if possible, then sand @ 400 then wipe down with Neatsfoot again and do a final buff...
To get into the cracks try using a dental pick or someting like one, these cracks also need to be sealed, I would use a clear epoxy if it were mine, but that should be done before you did any Neatsfoot soaking...

Thank you for the tip! I already sanded them and cleaned them. The thing is that it is really thin cracks. I would not be able to get in there whith a toothpick or anything like that. Maybe a superthin steelwire but that is it. Its like its been cracked by time and then left to soak in dirty water or something similar.. So, today i brought them up from the soaking. sanded to 1000 grit. pinned them and but them back into soaking. i was not able to get even a remotley shiny surface with 1000 grit. so i tried to buff them with some maas first. didnt work out at all. all i got was burn-marks on the scales. then i tried renaissance-wax. didnt do much either, no damage though. Then i used neatsfoot-oil on the buffing-wheel. that gave a nice shine. but nowhere near as nice that im expecting. Do i need higher grit? like a micromesh or something like that?
Is it ok to leave the blade in the neatsfoot oil overnight? I get the feeling, when touching the scales, that they are still really fry and needs more oil..

ive done a few restores by now. all turned out great in my humble opinion, good enough for me and great shaving. But this horn-thing. It seem like a whole different ballpark. all the scrathes from sanding is so evident and the smell is really disturbing. what do you guys use to make the sparkle?

Here are a couple of old Horn scales I did recently

http://straightrazorpalace.com/custo...-patience.html

http://straightrazorpalace.com/custo...e-restore.html

I rarely if ever use lower then 220 grit on old horn, and rarely go higher then 400 grit for reconditioning, when I go to the buffer I use a 1725 RPM 6 inch buff mop with Plastic polish, then a final two applications of RenWax by hand...

When I make new Horn scales I use micromesh up to 12000 grit and water sand them...

Hopefully that helps, keep in mind the old Honey Horn like you are doing are near impossible to get perfect again
Also make sure you are using a respirator when sanding and buffing on these...

ps: you might try 400 grit with the Neatsfoot oil and see if that gets a nice finish to buff out...

I will defer to Glen, but on these scales I used 400-800-1000-1500-2000-4000-8000-12000 "wet sanding" with neetsfoot oil.

Start:
Attachment 86063

Finish:
Attachment 86064

Of course, these are black. I don't know how well honey horn polishes up.

That came out beautiful :tu

BTW I am in agreement if you don't have a buffer that progression with the Micromesh or the 3m polishing paper which is much cheaper is the way to roll

http://www.ottofrei.com/store/produc...cat=820&page=1

Thanks Glen. Just for the OPs further edification, that progression was on 3m sandpaper (from Autozone) up through 2000, then on high grit paper from Hobby Lobby. Wet sanding all the way with neetsfoot oil. If I had to do it again I'd have used micromesh and domed washers rather than stacked. :)

Thank you for the help!
They are "done" now and they look ok. at least in my book. They seem supersensitive to even mild heat so i will have to handsand with neatsfoot the rest of the way like you recommended. Ill post a pic later today so you can see the result. Wouldnt have gotten this far without your help, thank you again!

Pictures o the done razor?

Hello again!
Here is some pictures. I didnt really turn out quite as good as i would like. The blade is ok and pretty shiny but the scales need more work. I peened it anyway because i really would like to have a testshave with it right away.
I gonna have another go at the scales later. Buff them with some patience this time, sand down the area around the wedge and replace the wedge with.. brass maybe.
What do you think about the text on the scales. Should i just wipe the color on there and sand/wipe the rest away, the text is quite deep so that could work. Whats the best procedure here? needle with a little paint on and dab down the sunken lettering?
Attachment 86298Attachment 86299

I think use a toothpick with paint.

However, consider two things:
1. I honestly don't know, but how well will paint stick to oil soak horn?
2. If you're going to redo them anytime soon, I wouldn't worry about painting with them so you don't worry about messing the paint up later. JMHO.

I use thin compound CA to seal the cracks. The thin mix is designed to wick into cracks but you wont get 100% of the air bubbles out of the scales. Then as others have said, buff them with some compound. You can get a nice shine back.

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