Thread: Landers Frary and Clark restore

Time for my first restore! I bought a Landers, Frary & Clark off of eBay. It's in ok condition I think. Some rust, no (visible) pitting. Definitely going to need to rescale (you can't tell in the photo, but the scales are pretty warped). Going to start working on it tonight, though I won't be able to unpin yet.

Stepped through 220, 320, 440, 1000, 2000 grit. Don't have any polish yet, and didn't unpin the scales (don't have a grind attachment for my dremel, and don't have a small enough drill bit). I'm sure it could be better, and I'll probably touch it up once I do the scales, but here's the (near-)final product. I'm pretty happy for 3 hours worth of work.

Looking quite good. Are you going to give it a mirror finish?

Is there any rust or lots of grime on the pivot area?

Sounds like you're enjoying yourself, that's the most important part.

Thanks! The grime's pretty much cleaned itself out. there's still some rust in the pivot, but once I unpin I'll be cleaning that up as well. Razor moves smoothly at the pivot, but one of the scales is warped to a point the blade can hit it when you close it if you're not careful. There was also a number scratched into the scale that cleaned up quite easily with some 1000 grit wet sanding. The photo above is after 2k grit. I think I'm going to get some jewelers rouge and a buffing disc for my dremel, before I use some of that polish everyone talks about (mag? maas? I forget what it's called off hand...)

What do you think I should do for scales? I'm completely undecided. Don't know if I want to replace the scales or try to restore these ones. Is it possible to restore plastic or celluloid scales that are warped?

Looks like your truly are on a great start! Enjoy

Ryobi "plastic rouge," Ryobi jewelers rouge, and then Mothers mag & aluminum polish, and a bit of elbow grease later... I think it just barely qualifies for mirror.

I have read somewhere that you can use some hot water / steam / pressure combination to make it flat again, but I have never done so myself. But from the way it looks now, it'd be nice to have a custom scale on it.

Originally Posted by LaneAtomic

Thanks! The grime's pretty much cleaned itself out. there's still some rust in the pivot, but once I unpin I'll be cleaning that up as well. Razor moves smoothly at the pivot, but one of the scales is warped to a point the blade can hit it when you close it if you're not careful. There was also a number scratched into the scale that cleaned up quite easily with some 1000 grit wet sanding. The photo above is after 2k grit. I think I'm going to get some jewelers rouge and a buffing disc for my dremel, before I use some of that polish everyone talks about (mag? maas? I forget what it's called off hand...)

What do you think I should do for scales? I'm completely undecided. Don't know if I want to replace the scales or try to restore these ones. Is it possible to restore plastic or celluloid scales that are warped?

Once I have the tools, I'll probably make some custom scales for it. I've got a Red Imp now too, that if warped I'd really want to try and save the scales of (I haven't seen it yet). Those red scales look great!