Thread: Restoring a B.J. Eyre & Co Challenge, looking for some advice

Originally Posted by cudarunner

You can also use some 0000 steel wool, but there again you may not want to get very aggressive! You may like what you find left behind!

Excellent common-sense advice. Low-grit sandpapers can never be undone, and the entire sanding process requires a level of patience that I know I don't possess. Proceed with caution and respect....

Originally Posted by Jonah

I don't have a drill press or a dremel, so I can't get the pins off just yet.

If you have a drill you can steady it on a table with one hand and steady the razor with the other. That's how I took my pins off and it wasn't too tough. It will be much easier to sand the whole thing once the scales are off.

I also picked up a tumbler after I had sanded a bit and later wished I had done the tumbling first. It looks like most of your rust is on the thick parts of the razor, which is fortunate. But, the tumbler makes it easier to remove the rust around the stamp, so that you can see the pits before you start sanding. Just a thought - I'm very new to this as well.

So here is an update. I went to Home Depot and bought a filing kit and was able to file the pins down. I dissasembled the razor and the first thing I noticed was how sticky the spacer was. It looked like it had sludge on it. The sludge was also around the pin hole of the razor.


I put some Mothers near the tail and pin hole and started buffing away. I knew I would need to get some Mothers in the pin hole as well to get out any rusted metal. I found a leaf on the ground and started using the bottom of the stem to get the Mothers in the pin hole. Within a minute or so, I was literally scooping metal out of the hole with the leaf. The metal was so corroded it turned into the sludge I mentioned earlier. The crater that is in the handle is a little more than 1/8 of an inch, though the actual hole itself is a little smaller. Before I continue putting anymore work into it, I was curious if this would be a huge problem. I don't have many tools at my disposal. I haven't made scales before, nor have I tried repinning a razor. I imagine if I were to finish the restoration (which I would like to do), I would need to make the hole uniform so I could have a pin fit snuggly in there. Would I need to get a round file and slowly make the inner hole match the size of the crater?

Anyway, after an hour of Mothers and elbow grease/butter alternative, most of the active rust has come off. There is still some near the top end of the blade, so I think I'll need to grab the sandpaper. It isn't nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be, so I'll start on the higher end and work my way down if need be. Thank you everyone who has contributed thus far, your help is very appreciated.



This is before any Mothers

Given the age an over sized pivot is all too common. Looks like you get to do a Sleeved Pivot. Take a look at sleeved pivot search for other ways to do it.

On my last restore I hand sanded the inside of the pivot by using some twisted 1k wet dry sandpaper. Then I packed the pivot with mothers and twisted some paper to fit in the pivot and used it to polish the inside of the pivot. You could alternatively soak the pivot with one of the acids used to force a patina to convert any active rust to black rust. I would use a phosphoric acid based product like "Krud Kutter The Must for Rust Rust Remover and Inhibitor".

Personally I would stick with the mothers to remove all the rust and not do any sanding, also try to save the original scales.

You are making good progress, keep it up.

Jonathan

Thanks for the link and advice. I actually just finished a very light sanding and another run of Mothers. I taped over the face of the blade to cover the stamp and used some 400 and 600 grit wet dry just to get the active rust off. Once that came off, I went back to the Mothers. There is still pitting and some darkening, but I didn't want to grind off more than was necessary. A few members mentioned possibly leaving some of the imperfections on it. Thinking about it, it's great advice.

I still have the scales and the spacer, though the scales have seen better days. I have some wood slats that will be coming in the mail next week, so I will most likely try my hand at making some new scales.

Originally Posted by Jonah

Thanks for the link and advice. I actually just finished a very light sanding and another run of Mothers. I taped over the face of the blade to cover the stamp and used some 400 and 600 grit wet dry just to get the active rust off. Once that came off, I went back to the Mothers. There is still pitting and some darkening, but I didn't want to grind off more than was necessary. A few members mentioned possibly leaving some of the imperfections on it. Thinking about it, it's great advice.

I still have the scales and the spacer, though the scales have seen better days. I have some wood slats that will be coming in the mail next week, so I will most likely try my hand at making some new scales.

Nice work!

I’m glad you left a little ‘character’ to it!

Feels good to be bringing an item that was of great value to someone long ago back to life and into service doesn’t it!! I like the way it looks! Nice Job!

While I’ve sent some blades in for buffing, all of the straight razors that were given to me by my old Boy Scout Scoutmaster (he’s 92) were all just treated to the newspaper and MASS, then cloth and MASS and they all still look great! When I showed them to him he just beamed!! When he looked at one of them with some nice etching on the blade he exclaimed, “Boy! You can actually read what it says”! One of the razors was his fathers and has no COO (Country of Origin) all it says on the tang is Hair Op. It’s a very nice shaver!

Here’s a link that will help you with making scales, he does a very nice job explaining and showing you how it’s done.

making straight razor scales with a minimum amount of hand tools - YouTube