Thread: Recommend a Bench Grinder / Polishing Set...

Originally Posted by Kirdro

I use a large heavy duty set of welding gloves when handling blades on my polishers. While I do lose some dexterity, I'd rather keep my fingers. Another tool I've found useful is a pair of locking pliers and a rag. You have to be careful about placement, and make sure it grips solidly. Shooting a razor off a buffer is hazardous to your health, and a death sentence to your blade.

So is burning the temper, and with what your doing it is way more likey since you can't feel the heat build up it takes less than 1 second to over heat a hollow grind.. You also stand way more of a chance of the wheel grabbing and snatching your hand and breaking every bone in it..

There are Vids and pictures on here of how to hold the razor and your fingers to keep them clear if the buffer grabs the razor...


Warning: Buffers are about the most dangerous things to you and the razors in your shop, regardless of which methods you use

Hmmm....

This threads put me off a bit now :-/

I've actually hand sanded two more blades (a Mappin and Webb and a an unknown brand Whitestar M. J. Newman, Southampton), and they were much easier than the Kropp. The Kropp seemed to be made out of some super hard metal!

Its a totally flat mirror finish I really want. I want the blade to look like *new* when I've finished. At the moment, I can get a reflection of whatever its on, and its very bright and shiny, but when you tilt the blade you can see loads of little scratches from the 1500/2000 grit paper. The metal polish is brightening the blade up, but not taking these out.

Its the same on some scales I've saved too. They look great, but you can still see loads of tiny scratches.

I have a Dremel (well, a Draper mutli-tool, but its the same thing really), maybe a buffing kit for that would be a better start.

If you use WD-40 on the grits starting at about 800 and up that will create a nice glowing finish and eliminate the scratching..

Dremels take some talent to learn how to use on Razors, you have to keep them moving and you have to keep the edge buried at all times, there is a ton of in in the Workshop sticky

Scales: I rarely use a buffer on scales only on Horn Bone and Ivory, everything else is wet sanded in using Micromesh to 12000 grit then polished by hand

Not being mechanical or handy at all I spent a LOT of time and money trying to convert a bench grinder to a buffer. It's interesting to have a cast iron tool running at 3450 RPM try to jump off the bench into your lap. I have since broken down and ordered a real buffer from Caswell; who by the way has kits for razor makers. When you are the clutz I am one should just go buy the right tool for the job.

+1 to gssixgun's comment! While buffers are incredibly useful, they definitely take practice and experience. Having a dedicated buffer with variable speed (read: low speed) is great, but don't get in a hurry. Take your time, you'll not only get a better finish, you won't ruin your blades temper.

I've never tried the wd40 trick, I've always been told it rusts stuff like crazy, and avoided it. Any negatives you've noticed?

WD 40 will not cause rust. Works good to loosen rust though.

Jeff

Right, I've got a plan:

I'm going to send the Kropp off to someone to have new scales put on, the blade polished and honed. I'll use this as a "reference" blade for my own work.

I'll concentrate on the Whitestar M.J. Newman blade as this seems to be coming up the better out of the two other razors I have, and I've got the original scales off in one piece. At the moment, I'm still on 80 grit as I'm removing some patina and around 8 or 9 pits on the blade. When I get to 800, I'll introduce WD-40 and see what I get. I'll pick up some 2000 wet and dry a micromesh polishing kit from eBay to use too.

I'd prefer to get hand-polishing down to a T and buy my first 1000 grit honing stone, rather than spend the money on a polisher

I'll try and take some photo's as I'm going along and maybe people can point out things I need to look at.

kD