Part of a set of abused eBay razors I acquired recently was this vintage Dorko 43 razor. From the photos you can see extensive surface rust, severe hone-wear, and overall, a razor that has suffered some neglect. Normally, I wouldn't go near a razor that appears so far gone, but since it was part of an inexpensive set (and the fact I've never tried a Dorko), I was compelled to give it a go and see what could be salvaged. On the buffer I began removing the surface rust from the blade. Prior to this, I had removed the blade from the 3-pin scales—which were in decent condition, just in need of a good cleaning and polishing. Beneath the rust was some evident pitting, particularly on the 'back side' nearer the heel (bottom photo above). The pitting extended about 1.25" and nearly the width of the blade. This would take some work to minimize. Greaseless compound progression >80 grit to remove the majority of rust and begin reducing the pitting > 240 grit >removal of surface scratches and minimize pitting > 400 grit > softening of scratches and pitting > 600 grit > further softening of scratches and pitting > Emery compound > removal of scratches and beginning of polish. Some final hand-polishing of both the scales and blade. Re-pinned the pivot point. (Whooops! I thought I had grabbed a nickel-silver rod to go with stainless washers, but after finishing the pin, I realized that I had used a BRASS rod by mistake….. I DO like the look of contrasting rod with pin and have used it before—but this should have been all the same. Oh well…. I may eventually swap the other two out for brass to match OR simply leave it. Not a big deal, but… I honed the razor (dbl layer of spine tape to compensated for the spine wear) using a progression of Chosera 1k to set the bevel > Naniwa 3k>5k>8k>10k>12k and finished on the Escher waterstone. Killer sharp edge (HHT4-ish). I had an afternoon shave using this newly-operational Dorko and it was wonderfully smooth. BBS on a 3-pass shave. Some Eye-Candy Pics of the 'new' Dorko…You can still see some residual pitting on the tang (mainly) and some near the heel, but overall, none of it is truly objectionable. I wanted to maintain the maker stamps and model number so best to leave some pitting, if necessary.
Excellent How do you detect the hone wear on the thicker grinds? Nevermind, i see it in the before pics. The after looks great.
Thanks. Typically you'll see bad wear at the toe, at both point and spine. In many cases, I suppose theres not much one can do when it has gone beyond a salvageable position.
Night and Day different dude. Super well executed save. I had my doubts it could be done and before I got to the after pics I had a different idea of what the final result was going to be and I gotta say dude, you completely blew my mind. That is some master level stuff right there.