Assorted Straight Razor Restorations

Really makes me wish I wasn't born with a thumb in the middle of both hands

 

enjoying your WIP so far, the finished blade is looking great. handles look promising.

 

Two new additions to the toy tool collection: a new 6" buffer and a case tumbler. I appreciated all of Glen's (@gssixgun) expertise, experience and advice regarding using either a buffer or a case tumbler to produce a top blade finish. I'm doing all I can to minimize my wrist to prolonged hand-sanding. So I decided to try both methods out.

Since I am still awaiting delivery of compounds and cotton wheels for the buffer, I went ahead and tired out the tumbler.
I added about 4 pounds of walnut shell media, plus 4-5 generous dollops of Turtle Wax rubbing compound; dropped in 4 blades, and let it do it's 'tumbling' thing for about 48 hours or so.

One of the razors I added was this W&B blade that was in a pretty sad shape with rust, gunk, scratches and pitting.
I cleaned it lightly with a soft rag and mainly sanded the toe—the area with the most severe pitting, with 120grit sandpaper before placing it in the tumbler.


After 48 hours in the tumbler… A good deal of the 'gunk' was gone and the blade had a nice sheen to it. The etching really stands out now. I still need to go back and work on the toe some more, but I'm encouraged by this test run. My expectations weren't high, so I am pleased at this stage. Once I do some more sanding of this blade (or buffing w/ lo-grit compound), it'll go back into the tumbler with the walnut, and then follow that with the corncob media & polishing compound.


***Side Note: DO NOT LEAVE BLADES in the MEDIA! I was running the four blades for some additional time in the tumbler the other night and we had a local power outage. Power was restored several hours later (around midnight)—but I forgot all about the blades in the now-idle tumbler. I didn't think to check them until the following evening. Uh oh!...all my 'clean' blades now have lumpy black splotches where the rubbing compound adhered (clumped) to the blades... These can be removed by hand-sanding (grrrrrrrr!)—but it sort of defeats the purpose of using the tumbler. Oh well..lesson learned. The tumbler works...just don't leave the blades in there while it is not moving.

 

Productive Day today…Using a belt sander (with #80 grit), I 'smoothed' out and shaped the scales (post#60) and chamfered the edges; after thinning them to the desired thickness.
Each half is very close to the thickness of the originals. I will next hand-stand to continue to smooth out the finish, remove scratches and round over any rough patches.

note: I used a damp cloth to remove some of the excess dust, hence the darker appearance of the purple heart.

 

After some hand-sanding (100-180-220-300-400-600-800-1k-1200-1500-2k), the scales are shaped to the desired size and feel. They are a hair larger than the original plastic scales I used as templates, but it really isn't noticeable.

Since the halves are still bound together during this sanding process, I can now split them. They are fairly thin near the pins positions, so I'm wary of trying to 'pry' them apart with any tool.
What made this job REAL easy was to apply a thin bead of Uni-Solve—an liquid adhesive remover used for removing bandages, IVs, etc.—to the exposed edge of the tape all around the scales. I let them sit and after about 2 minutes, they pulled apart quite easily. A quick wipe with Naptha and everything was good. I then sanded the backside with a similar progress of grits used on the reverse side.


I had a blade close at hand (the large faux frameback shown earlier in this thread) and so placed it onto the larger of the scales.

As I suspected, this particular blade won't fit on these scales (the template was from a slightly smaller Elliot razor). From pin to pin, these scales are 4.875" and the big frame back requires a 5.0" spacing. I'll save the frame back for some later scales. I do plan on using the old metal wedge as a template for these scales. Material to be decided.


Next up: two sets of larger scales made of cocobolo (rosewood). I have them roughed out (bandsaw) and will be shaping them next on the belt sander. Pics to come...

 

With the bandsaw, I trimmed out two sets of scales—slightly longer than the previous purple ones—from two back-to-back adhered blanks of cocobolo. These are 5.0" pin-to-pin.
Cocobolo is a lovely rosewood that unfortunately has a nasty reputation among many who are highly allergic to it's dust. So I took additional precautions when cutting & sanding the stuff.
Here are the two identical sets, still taped together and hand-sanded up to 2k grit.



The two sets split, and backside sanded smooth to 1200 grit, front to 2000.


Another 'test fit'…on these scales, this hefty blade will work beautifully.


Next up is to do some wedges.
I haven't decided upon which material for the wedge (bone? contrasting wood? same wood?)...

 

Wow! I got to looking at the progress and was mesmerized. What great work you're doing! Keep these pictures coming. What a pleasure it will be for to shave with one these that you put so much into!

When I brew a batch of beer and sit back and realize that it's just as good or better than anything you can buy, it's a rewarding feeling. But the beer won't last a lifetime like your work will. And that's awesome"

 

Thanks, Rusty. I entered into this whole restoring deal with some trepidation, but with the generous advice of the many more experienced 'razor restorers' here on TSD, it's been a fun and educational process!
What I miss is a homemade brew to enjoy after hours of sanding!

 

Wedge Work
I started making some wedges this week using several different woods to practice upon. My first few examples came out rather huge and clunky.
My goal was to make the 'fat' end of the wedge approximately 1/2 the width of the razor's tang. I did that but my slope was too extreme going from too thick to too thin and the results simply were simply not fitting properly. Then I wised up and used the wedge salvaged from the broken scales as a template for thickness and angle. This took some of the guesswork out of the equation for me—as it is, I need all the help I can get with the 'trial & error' portion of this 'learning curve.'

Here's one of my more 'successful' attempts with the wedges. Made from yellow heart. Fitted using a 'mock tang' (thanks for the idea, Glen!)also made of the same material, the same thickness as the Elliot razor for these scales and held in place with brass fittings. The wedge was cut oversized, then brought close to the trim size with the belt sander—and finished with hand-sanding. I test-fitted with the actual blade in place to ensure the proper clearance (approx. .125", maybe a bit more) and trimmed it to size. It's far from flawless, but at least I can say I am beginning to understand the process a bit more. Practice, practice, practice…...

 

Absolutely great and inspiring stuff Kevin. If your sermons are like this , folks must leave the church doing cart wheels.

 

Thanks, Hanzo!
Just like some of my weekend messages, working with all the components that go into making a decent straight razor can be frustrating and downright repetitive!

Still some more sanding on this wedge is needed…

 

Really nice stuff!

 

On to Another Wedge:
I learned quite a bit on the last wedge-making endeavor, and this one went a bit smoother. Not perfect, but smoother.
With the cocobolo scales, I decided to use a darker wood and am using Mun ebony. It is much denser (harder) than the yellow heart and so required considerable effort belt-sanding a wedge to the desired thickness.
Once I did get it to the right thickness, I 'eye-balled' the wedge on the scales and marked the pinholes. After drilling, I could position the oversized piece on the scales using another 'mock tang' and check the fitting. It looked fine! The next step was to position the razor on the pivot and mark on the wedge where I needed to remove some stock so the blade's nose doesn't strike the wedge. I marked the wedge with a fine sharpie and trimmed the wedge down.

Test fit with blade and wedge:
As you can see I have not trimmed nor sanded down the 'extra' material of the wedge. I'll probably do that tomorrow.


Just a hair over 1/8" clearance….


just an extra shot of the pivot end…


I'll remove some of the excess with either the bandsaw or scroll saw, then hand-sand it flush.


The 'gap'…

 

Thank you! It has been a fun experience so far!

 

I like the yellow heart wood wedge, made for a nice color combo there. both coming along really nice

 

Thanks! Purple & Gold…my old high school colors!

 

Whoops! One more shot I left off the previous posting above: top view…

 

More hand-sanding: It seems like this process for me has been a continual "Two steps forward, Three steps backward" routine—but I suppose this is to be expected as part of the learning curve.
I now have five sets of scales that are nearing completion—taken to the stage where a wedge has been fitted and I can now work on the finishing of the wood. Upon further inspection, however I detected rough patches on the edges of some sets, and after applying naphtha, scratches and marks from the band saw have made themselves very obvious on the inside of most of the scales. Starting@ 220 up to 600grit, I smoothed these areas. One thing I have experienced with wood finishing: small, little imperfections in any wood become magnified under a finish, so best to spend the time and effort here prior to a poly application.

 

New Scales: Horn
I still have the set of horn I mentioned earlier in this thread and so finally got around to making some scales from it.
I chose another large blade—this 7/8 Wostenholm which had a crack horn scale to begin with.

I used the scale pin positions of the old ones, but decided to add slightly greater curve to the scale shape. Not a big difference.
When I cut the horn blank to workable sizes, outlined the shape I want and trimmed (rough) out the scales on the bandsaw. Each piece was still too thick so I thinned them each down to about 1/8" thickness. Both pieces had a slight warp at this point. I bound the warped scales together tightly in rubber bands—and plunged the scales in boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Upon removing them, I added 4 small C-slamps to hold the scales tightly while they cooled. the next day, I removed the clamps and rubber band…flat scales again with no warping.
Back to the belt sander for some edge chamfering, but first I drilled the two pin holes with the two scale pieces taped together. Following the rough belt sanding to the desired shape, hand-sanding was next.
I was pleased with the way they turned out. they are still some visible scratches that need my attention, but I'll finish that up at a later time.
Here are the new scales, post-handsanding. You see the other horn blanks in the background.

For the wedge, I am using bone. I learned a few things from my earlier attempts (amazing how much one can learn from his repeated mistakes!) and this wedge-shaping went without a hitch. The thickness I determined from the previous (old) horn scales.
Oversized and held in place. I trimmed the wedge in the bandsaw after determining the amount of clearance (1/8") for the blade nose.



The excess wedge material was removed with the belt sander and finished with some careful hand-sanding to ensure a smooth transition from bone to horn…


Overall, I am pleased at how my first horn scales turned out. Horn, like bone, stinks to hi-heaven when worked. A good respirator really helped with the funk.
Once I am set up with my buffer to finish a number of blades I have waiting, then final assembly can start to happen.

 

Coming along nicely. Looks like your mock tang is upside down. This thread is inspiring, The hand sanding results on the blades is fantastic. I have a tumbler already that I use for reloading. Looks like it is going to be doing double duty now.