Thread: Wanna try restoring??

I acquired a lot of razors off of Craigslist my question is since these razors are vintage and not like I can just go and buy a new one if I mess it up.. I wanna try restoring I'm pretty handy, I was gonna send them out out of fear of destroying them. What is a basic set up of tools I need,bench grinder greaseless compounds wheels.. Without raising costs what would b a very basic inexpensive set up how difficult is this hobby? Never worked with metals but can put houses together.. ??? Any help would b great or suggestions.. I'll put a post up after this one with pics ..

I have pretty much the minimum setup:

Unpinning:
-Needle file

Restoring blade:
-wet and dry sandpaper (240 - 1200 grit)
-micromesh (1500 - 12000 grit) (optional)
-metal polish ('Peek' in my case)

Making scales:
-Coping saw
-vice
-more wet and dry paper
-drill
-dremel (optional)

Pinning scales:
-Small peen hammer
-Larger hammer (used as an anvil)
-vice
-needle file
-wirecutters

There's some good info in the library:
-hand sanding a blade

-making scales

-un-pinning and re-pinning

The basic set of stuff you would need I think is soap and water, metal polish, a rag, and some sandpaper. I would go with grits 320-2500 to start off with. You can get the micromesh sandpaper also if you want. If I sand a blade I also go with the highest grit that I can and still be able to do what I want the sandpaper to do. The lower the grit the more work that it is going to take to get higher. I think alot of those blade I would just try polish first and see what that does. Doesn't look like they need much work. Good luck.

Beat me to it. Matt69 list is alot better. Everything for a full restore from scales to blade and then some.

I also want to do some restoration and haven't really worked with metal before.
I picked up wet dry sandpaper in varying grits, metal polish (maas or blue magic seems to be favored in the states)
Im also looking at getting a bench grinder with the buffing kit.

but the most basic tools from my limited knowledge would be just a handsaw sand paper a chasing hammer (for re pinning). and a dremel.
metal polish and lots of elbow grease.

most people say if you want to get a bench grinder not to go higher than 1800 rpm. it's really dangerous to use the buffing wheels at high speeds the razor can get snatched out of ur hand and end up in you apparently. I can't find one with a speed of 1800 or anything around that i can only find the cheap ones that are 2850 rpm usually. I think you can get a conversion of some sort for it though.

A band saw would be useful for cutting out scales if your planning on doing that but I've seen a video of someone doing it with just a hand saw (forget the correct term for it) and he does a great job.

a disc/belt sander would also be good for various things like finishing the scales wedge etc.
and a drill press is good too.
those are all the things I've been looking at anyway.

EDIT: lol beat me too it also. how slow was i

I second the washing and polishing before removing any metal. I've been in the situation where I had everything setup and after an initial wash and polish I was surprised to find no sanding necessary and headed to the stones. If and when sanding is required, some might need to be started as low as 100 or so, where others could easily be started with 400 or 600. You then take it as high as you want it polished, but I would recommend 1500 or 2000 at least.

As stated elsewhere, I would suggest buying equipment slowly as you need it. Starting out manually seems to be a great idea as many people never move onto equipment that requires electricity.

Enjoy the razors.

Have a read of this Sticky http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...wers-here.html
There's a tonne of good info there to help your research
Grant

I started with sandpaper, micromesh pads, and some polish. Then graduated to scale making using a coping saw, palm sander, glue, and some clear satin finish. Now I still use sand paper and polish mostly, but I did acquire a polishing wheel, which makes things nice!! Occasionally I'll use a belt sander to take out large quantities of material for scales.

I'm fairly new to this but my setup is more or less like Steve's.

Let us know how it goes. I'm sure some of your razors can just be cleaned up as used as is with perhaps a little metal polish and a rag and then honing.