I cleaned up this Waterville today! Again no before pics, I'll do one for this guy though. Over all the Klas Törnblom is not in bad shape. A few rust spots here and there, hopefully no major pitting. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Nice old Frederick Reynolds. A little pitting, lots of honewear. Pretty good shape for a blade from the mis 1800's. I didn't sand too much, since it's been hones so many times. I just unpinned, cleaned and polished. I applied two layers of tape and honed it up. We'll see how it shaves in the next few days.
Klas Törnblom Before: After: Swedish steel is, Incredibly hard...... I had to start out, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, & finished with a lot of Maas metal polish. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks guys, I couldn't believe the amount of time I spent sanding and polishing this razor. If I had sat and worked on it in one session I'm sure it would have taken 7 hours or so. Way more than I'd have to put into a softer steel razor like a Solingen or Sheffield. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Opps Barber Supply "Superior " Before After: Some pitting, I decided not to remove any metal. I removed any corrosion and polished up the blade and scales. It looks decent, and should hone up nicely.
Flic 5/8 Before After; Not much required. Cleaned up, masked off the gold wash and polished with three grades of compound and polish. Really nice mirror finish. If this shaves anywhere as good as my other Flic; I'll be a happy boy
Wade And Butcher "Bow Razor". Before: It doesn't look like the razor has ever been on stones before. But, the edge was chipped, and someone tried to grind the chips away, long ago. The Razor box looks almost unused too. It has rust all over, but for the price, it was a no-brainer. After: A lot of sanding, and a lot of reshaping the edge, just to make it straight. The scales feel tight, and new. Next is going to be honing.
Before: Overall nice vintage condition. Dirty and neglected as most straights are. Crud on blade and the scales ( whatever they're made of) dry and tired. After: cleaned many years of crud with scrubbing bubbles , soaking in neatsfoot oil, and polishing scales and blade. It was a chore to sharpen the butter knife dull blade. Turned out to be a great shaver
Excellent results, Keith. After a little thought/ my vote is for those scales being made of horn. If it were wood, the paint and or stain would have been sanded off, with the work you've done to it.
Here is one, that didn't turn out as well as I liked. The rust was too bad, but it did clean up a little. I had to blue the tang, as it was originally, after lots of sanding. Before: Shur-Edge. I did brush it with a wire brush, before the picture was taken. OOPS, that detracted from how bad the rust really was. After: Doesn't look much different in the photo, but in person, it was a big improvement. . Not my greatest restore.
Yesterday's restore. An old Wade & Butcher. The blade was all rusty, and the Horn scales were eaten up, badly. It took a long while, building the scales up, to fill in a lot of the holes. It was a pain, time-wise. I sanded everything down, then took the scales to my new bench buffing wheel. This made fast work on the scales. Great investment. Before: After: The blade had a lot of chipping in the heel end, and a little micro-chipping at the toe. Nothing that a little stonework couldnt fix.
Reading your post reminded me of a similar razor in my collection. I didn't want to purchase this Boker SR...it was in such pitiful condition. I thought it was beyond a reasonable restoration. The antique dealer threw it in a deal to buy three SRs. All three were in sad shape but I felt I could salvage two of them. But not this one. I think she wanted to get ride of it, so I got all three for $20. It sat in my cigar box for months, but last night it came to mind and I decided to see what I could do with it. The staining and pitting was pronounced. The crack in the tang covering is stable. I am only sorry I didn't take a before picture. It is still stained and pitted, but I think it gives us some idea of just how nice this razor must have been when it was new. What surprises me is the heft of this razor...and I do like the covered tang and tail. All that is left now is to get it on the stones.