Thread: Leave the pits alone?

I've been slowly restoring a J.R. Torrey I found at a flea market and have hit a bit of a wall in the process. I bought the razor because, in addition to being a dollar, it has a really neat imitation bamboo handle. The blade was a bit scaly when I brought it home but the edge looked pretty good. Since then, I've been doing a little sanding and polishing here and there but I didn't want to go any further without the advice of some experts. The blade is etched in very nice letters "Mr. Curry's Special" and I'm afraid that the remaining pitting goes deeper than the etching and the edges of the lettering are already beginning to soften. If I take the sanding/polishing any further, I'm sure I'll lose the lettering altogether and will likely lose enough of the blade thickness for it to matter. Unfortunately, I'm having zero luck taking a picture of what I'm talking about with my cell phone but maybe you can picture what I'm describing. Do you restoration experts recommend I consider it 'added character' and leave the pitting alone or try to take it back to a nice mirror shine?

That is what we call the trade off... It is the "Murphy's Law of Restore" that the pitting goes just below the stamps

You have to decide what you want more, Myself I really try hard not to remove them, -BUT- I hate rust, I can live with clean pitting, but not rusty pitting, I also never ever remove the makers mark on the tang if at all possible...

It's really hard to give any advice on this without pics since it depends of several facts like how deep the etching is, what degree of pitting, is it reatively light, or is it the notorious "devils spit"? And what grind the razor is, is it a hollow or wedge?
The thicker grind, the more you can sand without destroying the razor.

Originally Posted by Zephyr

It's really hard to give any advice on this without pics since it depends of several facts like how deep the etching is, what degree of pitting, is it reatively light, or is it the notorious "devils spit"? And what grind the razor is, is it a hollow or wedge?
The thicker grind, the more you can sand without destroying the razor.

I'll try my best to get some images but there's only so much my cheap cell can do. The blade is a hollow ground 5/8 and it's really hard to tell how deep the lighter pitting is but there was indeed some 'devil's spit' that now feels as deep as the etching when run over with a fingernail.