It doesn't look too bad, and it looks like it could clean up even more. A lot of times, some elbow grease and some good metal polish will remove almost all of the staining. What did you do to it, so far, to get it to where it is? BTW, I have a couple of covered tang razors, and they are light as a Feather.
I gave it the heavy duty treatment...starting with steel wool, 800, 1k, 1.5k and 2 k wet dry sandpaper and then Mothers Mag and Aluminium Polish and plenty of elbow grease and some TLC. I do all my restoration work by hand so I imagine a buffer wheel would likely take it to the next level. The pitting was quite deep. At this point I don't think I will invest too much more time in it.
It sounds like you did everything correct. If you want to take some more of the staining out, bump it down to 320, or 400 grit, and work your way up again, but go light, because of the wording.
Good advice. I generally don't like to dig into the metal too deep...800 is about as low as I normally go. I am fine with a bit of staining...it gives it character. The pitting near the toe was quite deep and would require significant metal removal top remove it all. Not worth it IMO.
William Rodgers 5/8 I handmade new ziricote scales and tang covers and lead wedge. Polished nickel silver hardware, stainless steel pin-stock. The tang covers really needed replacement but the scales were in good condition, I saved the scales for another project. Thanks for looking
I was bored tonight so I went digging through my box of "to-do some day in the future" projects and dug out this "Sultan Razor". I don't think its of the highest quality, certainly not Solingen or Sheffield quality....but it was an evening worth of work to put a spit polish on this blade and scales. I put it through the usual routine: steel wool, 800, 1k, 1.5k and 2 k wet dry sandpaper and enough Mothers Mag and Aluminium polish and elbow grease to put my hand into spasms. Here is the before: And the after: One of these days I will get this on the stones, but there is a lineup at the honing bench. It may take a while!
Dubl Duck, Satinedge. Kind of nasty looking photos, but I thought it had potential. A few minutes of buffing, and Viola. Not an "Ugly Duckling" anymore, at least I think so. Before: After: About 5 minutes buffing.
H.Boker & Co. American Line SS St. Louis. Before: After : Trial and error with this ones scales. It took several tries before the C.A. took hold. I also tried not to over Polish anything. I didn't want to loose the definition on the blade.
Unidentified "Silver Steel" Stubtail razor. This one had some bad dings on the entire edge, that needed working out. Polished, sanded and honed. Before: After:
Commie Razor, bought from Transylvania region of Romania. $1.99 + $13 Shipping Stiz, "Dawn", Made in Moscow. 1975. 43 years of tarnish. Polished out most of the abuse. Before: After:
I seen this one on the "Bay"...I wanted it but didn't have the time to really go after it. I got distracted with work and home life. It's nice to see it all cleaned up and pretty.
Joseph Elliots Best Silver Steel. This one had black scales that had degraded, and the top layer was brown and chalky. I had to sand the scales for a long while, then polish them out. The blade just needed some sanding, and a lot of buffing. Before: After: Very time consuming. BTW, the dark spots on the finished blade are just shadows. It was hard to get a good picture, because it was almost too shiny.
George Wostenholm & Sons. "EBRO" This one had to have the Bone Scales whitened(somewhat), because of the staining. It also required some scale polishing and sanding. The blade was fairly rough looking and required sanding and polishing. I finally got around to honing it today. It took on a Killer Edge, just like most Wosties. Before: After: