I thought it would be fun to start a before and after thread to razors we have worked on and have completed, not works in progress . Just a couple of before and after shots should do. If you want to put a BRIEF summary of what you did, that would be great, and help others who wish to do what you did.. Wade & Butcher Full Wedge. Not honed yet. Before: After: Lots of sanding, from 220-1500. then SemiChrome Buffing. I didn't want to sand or grind out everything. That would make the razor wavy. It is flat, all over.
Bengall. Cadman & Sons Some deep rust on both sides, that needed lots of polishing and sanding. I did the entire blade to keep it looking the same. Same as the Wade & Butcher above. Before: After:
Dug up some oldies...I'll be brief. Before...mystery razor with some serious blade corrosion and broken scales After...made some new faux tortoise scales and new life for the carbon steel blade by a series of compounds and polishes on the buffer. Before...7/8" W&B with some blade rust and discoloration; broken blond horn scales After...made new black horn with white feathering scales, white bone wedge, brass stacked washers, and shiny blade off the buffer. Before....lovely old Wostenholm with broken black horn scales and black rust on blade & tang... After...made some streaked horn scales with Celtic cross inlay, brass-lined amber wedge, stacked brass washers. Blade carefully cleaned to keep the engraving of the blade face. horn can be tricky as it has a tendency to crack or split when drilled or shaped... Before.... unusually-spined Wostenholm with some serious rust problems... After...disassembly and through cleaning and restoration of both there blade and scales; new brass hardware. Kept it all original except for the new pins and washers. Drab old scales turned out to be colorful and gorgeous!
It's a balancing act: remove just enough of the rust without removing steel that begins to diminish the engraving. It's far easier to do when the engraving is deep and/or bold in character. Engraved blades are far more forgiving than etched blades—which can be a real pain, particularly those etched with gold. For those, I find it best to hand-sand. VERY time consuming, but most gold etch is extremely delicate as Glen describes it, "you'll lose gold etch even if you look at it wrong..."\ I tend to avoid purchasing blades with gold wash that require restoration as it requires more time than I wish to devote. Before... this blade has both rust and many scratches across the blade face and through the etching (!!). The removal required many hours of careful sanding, minimizing the scratches using wet/dry sandpaper and wd40 (120>1200grits). After... some residual minor scratching is evident but the majority is gone without traumatic damage to the gold etch. New acrylic scales, brass-lined bone wedge, brass hardware. Before.... Another example of a etched blade with rust, gunk and scratches.... After... many hours of careful sanding, using a tip of a burnisher with glued sandpaper to reach the tight areas...and there were many!
Excellent work, as usual, Kevin. One of these days you might take us through one of these restorations, step by step, including some of your secrets.
No secrets... I suppose I need to remember to take more photos of the process. Most isn't very exciting. Here's a thread with some details of the restoration on the big Fenney I used in today's SOTD : Fenney 8/8
An old Sheffield straight fro the mid 1850's by G. Johnson Co. This is in pretty food shape (first two pictures). A small amount of rust, very minor pitting, and a fair amount of scratches. It appears that this fella may have stubbed his toe at some point . Looks like the toe is beveled off. Not a bad way to solve a mis behaving spike Unpinned and removed the blade for some sanding:320-2500 grit wet/dry. Finished by polishing with blue magic and dremel. The scales needed some major cleaning, especially som major build up inside. Nasty. A little soap and water, polishing compound and polish and this old fella looks pretty darn respectable A little trip to the hones before heading to the den... BEFORE: AFTER:
I'm now the proud owner of that Rockingham Wosty that Kevin restored. It's one of my favorite razors and it goes without saying it's a great shaver.
That razor was really a big surprise. I didn't expect the drab, dirty scales to be so uniquely colored once cleaned and polished. Quality Sheffield steel !
Thanks Scott. You're one of the guys that gave me the inspiration to get into this aspect of straights. A little elbo grease can take a $9 cast off and make a respectable shaver out of it.
Just recently got an old Wade & Butcher 5/8. The blade was pretty good; a fair amount of hone wear, and the bevel was free of nicks. This looked like a fun little project. The scales had one half celluloid and the other scale was yellow bone. After unpinning the blade, it cleaned up pretty nice. I'm feeling better about this already I had some Olive wood either way, I made a new set of scales, finished with ca, pinned up with brass hardware and then off to the stones.
I use a progression of wet/dry sandpaper from 320 through 1500 grit. I use blue magic metal polish with a dremel.