Thread: Note for those hand sanders-

Hey all!

I thought that I might post a quick note for those guys that are just getting starting into straight restorations.

When I started restoring straight razors about 3 years ago, I did not have access to a lot of tools, and being a student, money was fairly tight. So I, as many others, turned to hand sanding my blades. As many of the experts on this site will tell you, hand sanding your blades is in no way "wrong" or "bad", but it isn't exactly the fastest way of getting the job done.

So I want to mention something that will really help you guys out. BUY A DREMEL. They are not very expensive at all. If you are restoring a razor that has pitting, you are going to have to remove a substantial amount of metal for the razor. By all mean, take this metal off by hand, but if you do have a dremel, you can get flapwheels for them; which are money in the bank if you ask me.

I usually use a 120 grit flapwheel. I turn my dremel to almost full speed and the sparks fly off very easily.

I haven't found a way to use the dremel to finish the entire process, but you can use the 120 grit flapwheel to quickly (relatively) remove the metal that you need to shed to get down to good metal. Once that job is done, you can continue to happily hand sand with your normal progression, knowing that you have saved HOURS by using the dremel to get the bulk of the job done faster.

Also, if you buy (for about 5 bucks CAD) a cotton dremel buffing wheel- not a disk- you can load it up with mothers mag & chrome polish and get the job of buffing to mirror finish done in a triffle. On my most recent razor, it took me only about 30 minutes with the mothers/dremel wheel combo to get the blade to a mirror finish.

For those of you that knew this already, sorry to bore you, but I sure wish I had known this little tip before spending 9 hours painfully sanding the pitting out of my wedges.

I think the worst advise you could give someone starting to "restore" is to buy a dremel. no offence..
Dremels are dangerous, and 120 grit is entirely too low to begin sanding unless you have MAJOR pitting ...

I am a believer in sweat equity, however if you went to work for 9 extra hours (considering your time is valuable) you could likely pay to have your razor done professionally... or be well on the way to saving up for the proper tools while practicing your polishing skills.

Again, no offence intended... Haste makes waste.

Old67

Some use a Dremel to great affect, but epd has a point. They require alot more safety care. Use as long as it serves you. Keep all your body parts intact.

I have to agree with epd.
Stick to the hand sanding until you are ready to move up to the bench grinder with the greaseless compounds.
I did the dremmel thing and killed 2 blades and I was being careful.

Dremel= the tool of the devil,But I actually used one last night,wife do's all sorts of custom jewelry stuff,used a dental burr to drill a hole in a mabe (SP) pearl,worked pretty well.
Only other thing I use via dremel is a SS wire wheel after recuttng jimps.

OK i have used a dremel from time to time... mine is normally mounted on their "drill press" stand or has the flexible wand attached they are OK tools but not always the best. one issue with high speed and flap wheels is potentially over heating the blade, a silly waste of a razor, also you can quickly chip and even crack the blade with the shank of the tool. if you are using one set it to the slowest speed and take your time. if you search here on the forum you will probably find a guide to making your own high grit drums and i think even flap wheels. yes many of us have experimented, but as always, slow and steady is better than quick and dangerous.

Due to living space restrictions, I do not have the option of a full sized workshop. So I started with a dremel using homemade sanding drums per threads here on SRP... have stepped up to using 1" stitched muslin buffing wheels with greaseless compounds with great success... and I have never looked back. For example: exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit C, exhibit D.

IMHO saying a dremel is dangerous to a just-getting-started restorer is as poor a piece of advice, if not poorer, than not saying it. Reason being that it can easily lead a beginner to assume a full size bench grinder with greaseless compounds is easy in comparison when, in reality, it can be just as dangerous and damaging without practice.

I think the more appropriate thing to say is that either route can work brilliantly if practiced first. And either route can fail spectacularly if not practiced first.

As others have already alluded to in this thread, the key with either is to practice, practice, and practice more until you:

1. Get a feel for how each grit your working with will behave
2. Learn to stay focused and ensure you the rotation of the polishing wheel is spinning away from the 'shaving' edge of the blade so it won't grab it and destroy the edge, shred the wheel, or send the razor (or shards of it) flying
3. Get in the habit of regularly dip the blade in a cool cup of water to avoid over heating it and ruining its temper

Regardless of whether you use a dremel tool or a bench grinder, the result you get out of it will be directly proportional to the amount of practice you put into it.

Just my humble two cents...

Originally Posted by Old67

Sounds like I might have hit a nerve? Sorry if I upset you man, really. Also though, read back. I never called it "my system." Not once. I did say that I was shocked that people had a problem with "my method," meaning the way I described the work I did. I'm not trying to sound like I pioneered anything. This is not ground breaking work, its all been done before and I am completely aware of that.

I don't really care to run those searches. I thank you for pointing out the potential for disaster; you raise some extremely good points and I don't argue with any of them. I'm not actively trying to anger people here, I was just pointing out that dremels can be a very useful tool. If you don't believe me, that's not my concern- don't use them for all I care. I'm not even trying to say its the best way. In the thread I posted when I finished this razor, I freely admit that it is nowhere near as good as the professionals razors. I am not a pro and I don't pretend to be. All I was trying to do was pass along some advice on a tool which has produced for me some good results.

It works for me every time. If you are careful, it can work for you too. Just passing on some information- don't worry though, I won't be making that mistake again.

Hey, dont worry about all of this, when I began starting to clean up razors I used the dremel, and had excellent results. I never had an issue with flying or broken razors, however at one of our meets I was showing off my collection to Holli when he asked how I cleaned them up, I knew he knew. From that moment on my outlook had changed, I either make those scratch marks go away entirely or leave it alone.
That being said, I already owned a dremel, and im sure I wrecked countless things before I touched it to a razor (or I probably would have wrecked a razor or two).
As someone else put it, we will all make our own mistakes.

On a side note I can see where gssixguns coming from, the search is there for a reason. If 20 people join the site everyday and fill up the topics with new /their/whatever techniques/questions without searching to see that topic has been ubercovered, not only will the newest new guys be reading this new thread via search - but potentially taking yourself and others away from usefull threads - and actually learning something.
Hope that made sense, just my POV, not speaking for anyone else.

I am a fan of a $3 pack of 3M wet dry abrasive paper.
The 1000 grit followed by 2000 grit gets most blades
clean and bright. Then I hand polish a little bit more
each time I rehone the blade knowing that eventually
it will be mirror bright. I am not in a hurry....

Originally Posted by epd

On a side note I can see where gssixguns coming from, the search is there for a reason. If 20 people join the site everyday and fill up the topics with new /their/whatever techniques/questions without searching to see that topic has been ubercovered, not only will the newest new guys be reading this new thread via search - but potentially taking yourself and others away from usefull threads - and actually learning something.
Hope that made sense, just my POV, not speaking for anyone else.

I'm almost certain after the amount of years that this website has been operating almost every topic, question and answer about straight razors has been covered ad nauseum. So, why would we ever have to post anything? Just use search, find the answers to your questions, then search for the answers to the questions which are generated by the answers to your first questions etc...etc...etc...Sorry, I could not resist.