My first restore - W&B wedge

[dsmdylan]

This one should be a doozie. The blade has some nice chunks missing out of it and isn't even remotely sharp. That horizontal scoring looks like someone took 60-grit to it. The scales are toast, I want to replace them with some kind of wood - any suggestions on kits that aren't too pricey? Any suggestions for restoring the blade are welcome!

 

[buca3152]

IMO the blade will have alot of pitting that will be made more visible when you start to put a shine on it. Unless you have a grinder and know how to use it.

 

[Chaloney]

Take the scales off,
make one of these: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/77841-Restoration-Blade-Safety-Jig
Start reading this stuff: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...Restoration-Sticky-Redux!-*****Look-Here*****

you can find the magnets at some ace hardware stores. I got a pack of 3, 1/2 inch diameter, 1/8 inch thick "super magnets" for $10. You can get them cheaper on amazon if you have prime and a use for a few extra magnets. As you are sanding or polishing off the rust/tarnish you may notice the edge getting much sharper. The jig helps keep it away from your tender flesh. I'm in the process of restoring my first razor also. Sanded off all the gunk with 220. It took a while and there was a lot less than you have to deal with. Do not move up in grit until you have removed everything you want removed. The rarest of the sanding is just polishing out progressively smaller scratches. I went up to 1200 grit because that is what I had and I was happy with a less than mirror finish--it's about 150 years old, it's ok for itto look a little worn. I'm currently working on some scales. Here's a pic of the blade after sanding then polishing with MAAS for about an hour.

The picture is a little out of focus but you can see that it is pretty clean looking. The higher grits go pretty quickly if you do a thorough job on the starting grit. Looks like a lot of work, but a lot of potential.
From what can be seen of the original scales it looks salvageable. Are they worse elsewhere?

 

[dsmdylan]

Thanks for the tips! The scales were much worse near the other end and there was lots of rust caked in around the blade. Fortunately most of the bad pitting is on the tang where I can take off a good bit of metal. You can see now how bad the edge of the blade is, that has me the most worried. Also you can see that the face of the blade isn't perfectly flat, there's a little bit of a "channel" of sorts. Is this normal?

Day one: (200 grit, 800 grit, 1000 grit, dremel)

 

[Gamma]

Good work so far.
That groove is interesting - not sure what that's all about.
200 - 800x is a big jump. Might consider using mid-grits.. 320, 400, 600x. Or not. Depends on what 'look' you want.
The edge isn't all that bad. It'll take work to hone a solid bevel though.

 

[dsmdylan]

Good work so far.
That groove is interesting - not sure what that's all about.
200 - 800x is a big jump. Might consider using mid-grits.. 320, 400, 600x. Or not. Depends on what 'look' you want.
The edge isn't all that bad. It'll take work to hone a solid bevel though.

That's reassuring. I'm picking up the Norton kit to do the blade. I have experience sharpening and honing kitchen knives but nothing like this before. I really only used the 200 grit to get off the really bad surface rust. Used a couple of different attachments on the dremel where edges needed to be reformed and pitting cut into, and the 800/1000 grit to work towards actually finishing the surfaces. It will be really slow going at that grit but it's my first restore, I don't mind taking my time.

I wanted to leave as much patina as possible but I don't know how feasible that will be with the amount of work it needs. The groove is very odd and it's not as prevalent on the other side. That combined with the scoring on both sides of the blade surface and the fact that some of the edges are rounded off badly makes me wonder if someone tried to restore this thing once upon a time and had no idea what they were doing.

 

[dsmdylan]

Progress. I had to remove more patina than I hoped would be necessary to get rid of the deep cuts done by who knows what. I consider this side done. Other side next, then drill out the pivot hole so it's perfect, then rescale with hart scales from classicshaving (anyone have experience with these?) and then see if I can't make the thing shave ready!

dremel - 320 - 400 - 800 - 1000 - polish on the blade

 

[Gamma]

Looks real nice now, great job it getting rid of that groove.

 

[rockviper]

I would not believe this was your first restore if you hadn't said so. Great job cleaning it up!

 

[dsmdylan]

Thanks! It's my first straight razor restore but I already have a little bit of experience with the sort of thing as I've been building/modifying 1911s for a while. Now if only I had any skill with photography you might be able to see what it really looks like

 

[The Mick]

Doing great so far.

 

[dsmdylan]

Regarding the chips in the blade, do you guys think I need to breadknife that or can I hone it out?

 

[Gamma]

Do not breadknife it - no need, those small chips will hone out fine.

 

[dsmdylan]

Did the other side and sorta documented the process. I wanted to leave more patina on this side so I didn't do as much.

Even out the blade with dremel

This is after 220-320 grit

400 - 1000 grit and polished with red dremel polish


I don't think I'll be doing any more to it. Time to scale it and see if I can't make it sharp!

 

[Gamma]

Nice, great effort.

 

[dsmdylan]

Scales came in and a few ruined cobalt drill bits and dull files (this is some HARD steel!) later, I got the pivot expanded. Did some more smoothing and polishing and now all she needs is a good edge.

 

[dsmdylan]

A couple opened up

 

[AndroiDad75]

Nice job!!! Looks great!!

 

[Gamma]

Interesting look, great work, now get it honed up!

 

[dsmdylan]

Yeah, the pivot hole was reamed out pretty bad so I wanted to be able to drill it out to wider diameter and the Hart scales were the only real option I found for that. I'm not sure about the one piece design yet, I may cut it apart and put an actual wedge in and round out the edges. I love the cocobolo look though. Must be my gunsmithing roots

I set the bevel tonight using my Gatco stones up to 1200 grit with one layer of electrical tape, got it sharp enough to shave my arm. Got some lapping film coming in tomorrow that I'm going to attempt to use to finish it.