I've ground out all the staining on this Crystal blade, but I don't know how much more grinding to do. It has polished up nicely, but should I go back and grind away all the pitting to make it more saleable? Seems to me that this would remove too much metal. As it is, I think this will be a good shaver once it's honed. What would more experienced blade restorers recommend? Thanks.
Need advice on polishing
- Thread starter Rick Sparks
- Start date
The best blades are always mirror finished in terms of usability.
The soap washes off easier and the blade dispels water easier. The result a razor that is easier to maintain and use.
If you don't remove it, the pitting collects water and turns black quite quickly even if you are careful drying the blade. If the pitting is near the edge, you may get a problem with the edge being brittle and breaking or having a pitted edge.
In my opinion you should try and remove or cut back the metal and take away all the pitting. It is a time consuming job which many restorers undertake with sandpaper and muscle power. It requires patience and time.
I've done it successfully on very lightly pitted razors. There are good threads on SRP that cover the topic in depth. You just need to do a search.
The soap washes off easier and the blade dispels water easier. The result a razor that is easier to maintain and use.
If you don't remove it, the pitting collects water and turns black quite quickly even if you are careful drying the blade. If the pitting is near the edge, you may get a problem with the edge being brittle and breaking or having a pitted edge.
In my opinion you should try and remove or cut back the metal and take away all the pitting. It is a time consuming job which many restorers undertake with sandpaper and muscle power. It requires patience and time.
I've done it successfully on very lightly pitted razors. There are good threads on SRP that cover the topic in depth. You just need to do a search.
I don't know how much you paid for the razor but the pitting in the photo appears pretty severe especially near the spine. To get all the pitting off will be a very big job. It all comes down to is the blade worth the effort. Of course it may look far better in person but based on what I see I don't think I would put in that much effort if your talking getting it to mirror finish state. maybe if you want to clean it up and soften the pits that may be a better deal.
I hate to kick you while your down, but that blade looks in very bad shape. Maybe its the angle of the picture or the lighting, but all I can see is very bad pitting and probably more pitting at the edge. Pits at the edge = dead razor.
- Thread starter
- #5
Thanks for the guidance, guys. I'm going to look up the SRP resource and go ahead with trying to remove all the pitting. I'm just getting started and need to learn and this looks like a good learning opportunity. I'll post the results. Good or bad so others can benefit from whatever I learn. Cheers!
Before even starting the exhausting work of pit removal, first establish a bevel and see if it swiss cheeses. If not, go ahead with the restoration. If its cheese, well, at least you know what your working with.
- Thread starter
- #7
The photo makes this blade look a lot worse than it actually is. I've ground out most of the pitting (gees, those dremel sandpaper disks tear easily) and the edge looks good so I've ordered some more dremel sanding/grinding kits. One question, has anybody else tried cutting their own sanding disks out of aluminum oxide paper? The dremel disks are just way too expensive. This blade is looking better. Still needs a lot of work, but I'm learning as I go and that's the main point right now.
Rick,
I couldn't ever get an even grind with the dremmel.
If you start with an 80 grit wet and dry paper, once the blade is even, polishing up through the grits 120, 240, 400,800,1000 etc is actually enjoyable and satisfying. It's the work with the low grit that is balls aching but effective.
As for the dremmel bits, you may be able to find cheaper makes on e bay if you do a search. The trouble is, the dremmel stuff is good compared to some of the stuff out there.
Good luck.
I couldn't ever get an even grind with the dremmel.
If you start with an 80 grit wet and dry paper, once the blade is even, polishing up through the grits 120, 240, 400,800,1000 etc is actually enjoyable and satisfying. It's the work with the low grit that is balls aching but effective.
As for the dremmel bits, you may be able to find cheaper makes on e bay if you do a search. The trouble is, the dremmel stuff is good compared to some of the stuff out there.
Good luck.
At this time I am going to add a warning to this thread... There is a point that you can wreck a hollow ground razor with sanding out the pits...
There is a balancing act you must do on them, pitting -vs- integrity of the blade...
This is why you see threads of some really, really, beautiful mirror finishes on the heavier wedges and about half as many of the same pics of hollows...
We can only take hollows so far, they only have so much metal to remove....
There is a balancing act you must do on them, pitting -vs- integrity of the blade...
This is why you see threads of some really, really, beautiful mirror finishes on the heavier wedges and about half as many of the same pics of hollows...
We can only take hollows so far, they only have so much metal to remove....
Glen I've often wondered about that.
Have you ever come across a hollow (most likely full or extra hollow at that) which had enough metal removed during the sanding that it later failed?
Personally No, have I seen it posted ??? Yes....
Okay that's scary
I'm okay with injury due to user error, but blade failure is not how I roll
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