Here's one I recently finished—another that has sat around for a while waiting its turn. It started—as many of the razors I work on do—in pretty rough shape. Rotten scales, corroded pins and a blade that had potential, but I looked at it and said to myself, "That one can wait…." Nothing glamorous about it initially….but I did like the blade shape. looks like the previous owner was polishing it with a wire brush. The blade & tang stamps were both worn a bit so I had to be mindful not to lose them completely in the restore. I ran the blade for several days straight in the case tumbler (walnut shell & rubbing compound), and followed that up with some careful work on the buffer using the greaseless compounds (85, 180, 400, 600 grit), finishing with emery, stainless. Most times I leave it at stainless, but I wasn't happy with the look on this W&B. I took it up a notch higher towards the 'mirror' finish. I'm not a big fan of ultra-high gloss blades, but it seems to work best on this particular blade. Tough balancing act between keeping worn engraving & stamping and removing scratches and pitting. I tried to find a happy balance….. I salvaged some old dark horn scales, weighted & straightened them out, sanded & buffed them up; used a wedge made of cow bone ( I like the black/white contrast); I used some nickel silver bullseye collar washers on the external, solid brass for the internal bearing washers; silver nickel pins. finish with Renaissance wax. The W&B reborn….
Love the domed bullseye washers Kevin. And you're right, that blade does have a great shape to it - lots of flowing curves an' all! Another outstanding job I'd say.
Thanks! I was trying to keep the razor as 'original' as possible with a few minor adjustments. I didn't have the bullseyes in brass, so I went with the silver nickel (and matched the pin material). The old wedge was soft metal (lead?), so switched out to bone. Aesthetically, as I stated above, I just happen to like the black & white contrast. Now hopefully this bad boy will hone up nicely! I'm awaiting a escher finisher & I'd love to give it a go on this razor…we'll see if I can be patient.
Can't believe that's the same razor. I really want to do this with an old W&B like this one. Inspiring stuff.
