Restoration of "The Old English Razor"

[WittyAg]

Acquired this interesting old wedge from a member and could tell right away that with a little TLC, she would be a beauty. Suffice to say I'm no artisan at restoration work, but I was successful in shining up the blade, fixing the cracked horn scales at the pin, and giving the old girl some much needed sprucing up. As it turns out, CA works wonderfully at coating horn, and once its sanded down it really shows some nice coloration. I may not be finished for good, but I'm happy with it for now.

Btw, kudos to anyone that could provide me with any info about this blade.

Before:

 

[WittyAg]

After:

 

[netsurfr]

Nice job. I like an old razor like this cleaned up sitting in the original scales.

 

[JPM]

Very nicely done!

 

[John C]

sweet restore, makes my fingers itch to hold it.
good job!

 

[WittyAg]

So being a perfectionist, I couldn't settle on my earlier result and decided to tinker more with this restore. Originally, I had sanded the horn scales down with 600 grit sandpaper, coated with CA superglue to dry overnight, then resanded again to get the result I had last time. If you look closely you can see pits where the coating was not even.

This go around, I recoated and dried the scales a 2nd time, then sanded with 600 grit, then 1000 grit, then 2000 grit sandpaper, then gave the entire razor a cleaning with Turtle Wax Premium Polishing Compound (all Walmart products). That stuff is amazing. Not only did it put a waxy shiny coat on my scales but it took off some very stubborn oxidation on the blade. I've very happy with the latest results.

 

[danjared]

How did you keep the CA off the pins and blade? (Was it successful?)

 

[WittyAg]

How did you keep the CA off the pins and blade? (Was it successful?)

I was very careful in applying the CA to not add so much at one time that it runs over the sides and got on the blade. That being said, I laid the blade flat and did one side at a time and didn't bother coating the interior (unseen) surface of the scales, only the outside.

I didn't care if the CA got all over the pins because I actually wanted it to not only put a finish on the scales, but also to help reenforce the scales that were cracked on the pivot pin (which I had bound together with epoxy previously). Basically, at this point I would have to snap the scales off to remove them as the pins are embedded within the CA. Not that I care too much because I absolutely love how these turned out and have no desire to swap them out.

 

[ccgnet]

One of my favorites.