Rust removal

[aussie]

So this vintage GW arrived for me today. It has a spot of rust on the spine just above the toe.

What would you recommend to remove that? I am thinking of sitting it in vinegar just deep enough and then steel wool and or wet and dry. Either way the etching is very nice and I want to preserve that as best as I can.

 

[musicman1951]

For whatever it might be worth: I've had good luck with older rusty planes (for woodworking) soaking in coke for about a day (doesn't have to be name brand, any cheap cola) and then using a mild Scotch-Brite pad.

 

[aussie]

Cool. I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the tip!

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

That will clean up well with WD40 and 000 steel wool. Polish with 0000 steel wool and any good metal polish.

WD40 will also clean up between the scales with a wooden coffee stir stick and paper towel,

Will not harm wood or the etch.

 

[taffy]

That will clean up well with WD40 and 000 steel wool. Polish with 0000 steel wool and any good metal polish.

WD40 will also clean up between the scales with a wooden coffee stir stick and paper towel,

Will not harm wood or the etch.

Is wd 40 ok on a razor, I have read that you should not use it, asking as I restore razors and never used it and now wondering should I buy some.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

I have read that you should not use it

I use it as a honing fluid fairly regularly... hasn't caused any problems that I can tell.

 

[Frank Shaves]

Razors like WD-40 - not a problem.

Be careful using abrasives like steel wool and sandpaper on etching. For etching, try a cotton cloth with WD-40.

 

[5whiskey]

I always use steel wool bone dry to remove rust. If it's bad and pitted, you will have to flush with an oil occasionally. WD40 is fine. Some will say to use oil during rust removal. I have a habit of going it dry because of working on firearms with a blued finish. Believe it or not, dry steel wool will remove red surface rust and largely leave the bluing of a firearm (itself a form of rust) intact. If the surface rust grew deep enough to damage the bluing then there was no saving that spot. Using steel wool with oil seemed to always scratch and dull the finish of bluing. None of this is a concern on a razor i suppose.

For what it's worth I don't think steel wool will touch that spot. There's some slight pitting in that, and your oxide is black, not red. I mean sure, you will probably knock some rusty grime out... but you won't make the spot disappear with steel wool (or WD40 on a swab,, or anything else) by any stretch of the imagination. If you want that gone, there will be no other way than sanding. Or maybe CLR but I've never had the courage to try that on a razor I liked. Even with all the rust gone, you will still notice the pit. I have a razor with similar rust where I was successful in sanding and steel wooling out all the rust, and then polishing the razor to a shine with no sandpaper marks. I did not have the patience to sand the surface until the pits were gone. It's now a shiny razor with no rust, but with obvious pits where rust once was.

If there is good news, it's that you should be able to sand that out without touching the etching. I've cleaned up etching with super light steel wool strokes (again no oil) and scrubbing the part of the blade with no etching. You will get an obvious "frame" of polished steel around etching and dull steel. You can play with blending the edges of the highly polished steel with the less than polished edges surrounding the etching to make it much less obvious. Still noticeable (unless the razor was nearly pristine in the first place), but not bad looking.

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

I spray down every customer razor that comes in for honing, especially cleaning between the scales. With a coffee stir stick and a paper towel you can clean out all the gunk and dried soap easily. Blades get a scrubbing with WD40 and steel wool before a few minutes on the buffer.

Have Hosed down thousands of razor with out issue, cleans them up just fine. I buy it by the gallon.

I also wipe down ever razor after honing with a paper towel with a shot of WD40 to remove all honing swarf. For shipping I wipe the blade with Ballistol with a Q-tip.

Steel wool will not harm etching as you have, but do not use it on gold wash or faux etching, which is just paint like on Gold Dollars, unless you want to remove the paint. I remove a lot of paint for customers once it has been scratched. Use 0000 to polish or 000 to clean, go easy over the etching

 

[aussie]

So much excellent advice here. Thanks again everyone!!

 

[Frank Shaves]

Steel wool will not harm etching as you have, but do not use it on gold wash or faux etching, which is just paint like on Gold Dollars, unless you want to remove the paint. I remove a lot of paint for customers once it has been scratched. Use 0000 to polish or 000 to clean, go easy over the etching

Pay close attention to the last five words: "go easy over the etching".

The challenge I have with etching is I don't have the tools to understand its depth - perhaps this can be done with an electron microscope - don't know. I am cleaning it up, everything is going great and then, bam, a very small amount of back and forth and the etching has lost its etching-ness.

I have no real proof of my next statement, but it seems as if it is more dangerous to use a soft material like steel wool on etching than a material with a hard back like super fine wet/dry sandpaper like 3000 grit. The soft material seems to get into the etching.

 

[Frank Shaves]

Also, be careful sanding the spine of a razor. If you use wet/dry sand paper to remove pitting in the spine, you risk removing metal and changing the geometry of the razor.

As @5whiskey said, I would use steel wool with WD-40 on that spot. It won't go away, but the WD-40 will help convert any iron oxide (red rust) to black oxide (magnetite) which is inert.

 

[Eastcoast30]

Try doing the very least possible. The more I mess around, the more I ruin things (I think many will agree). Just leave a drop of WD40 on the rust spot for a half hour. Then wipe it well with a cloth. The rust may turn black and I would just leave it at that. Vintage razors will never be perfect. Focus on the shave and not the aesthetics.

 

[aussie]

Excellent advice there regarding the WD-40.

I actually left the spot on the corner sitting in vinegar for three hours and that didn't tough the etching. The metal that was in the acid turned blue - much like blued steel. Since the rust is on the very top of the spine, I think it should be fine with W&D, but I will adopt the minimalist approach. I am looking forward to shaving with this.

 

[Legion]

Excellent advice there regarding the WD-40.

I actually left the spot on the corner sitting in vinegar for three hours and that didn't tough the etching. The metal that was in the acid turned blue - much like blued steel. Since the rust is on the very top of the spine, I think it should be fine with W&D, but I will adopt the minimalist approach. I am looking forward to shaving with this.

What you have done is called forcing a patina, and people often do it to carbon knives, as that grey colour is actually a type of mild corrosion, and it will protect steel from the more damaging red rust.

The bad news is you have probably damaged the fine razor edge on a microscopic level, and when you hone it extra attention will be needed to get past that.

 

[Time Bandit]

So this vintage GW arrived for me today. It has a spot of rust on the spine just above the toe.

What would you recommend to remove that? I am thinking of sitting it in vinegar just deep enough and then steel wool and or wet and dry. Either way the etching is very nice and I want to preserve that as best as I can.

Look up CLR.

 

[aussie]

What you have done is called forcing a patina, and people often do it to carbon knives, as that grey colour is actually a type of mild corrosion, and it will protect steel from the more damaging red rust.

The bad news is you have probably damaged the fine razor edge on a microscopic level, and when you hone it extra attention will be needed to get past that.

Thanks again for the response. The rust, and therefore the acid applied, was well away from the cutting edge. The blue colour that was left was very attractive, and the razor would look great if it were all that colour.

 

[Frank Shaves]

Can you post an after picture, @aussie?

 

[Gamma]

Looks very minor. I would hit just that spot with 600x w/d paper, will probably clean up nearly instantly. If needed, chase the polish with finer grades of w/d. Honing will prob take a lot of it out anyway.

 

[aussie]

Can you post an after picture, @aussie?

Sure no problem!