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Success sanding a blade

So tonight I took the plunge and sanded a blade. It had been horribly scratched by some nimwit's attempt to "clean it up" with much too low a grit. To be honest, I wasn't sure it wouldn't be worse after my attempt.

I had heard on this forum to start high and work down to an effective grit. So I started with 5k wet/dry wrapped around a wine cork, no effect. Similarly, no effect with 4k, 3k, and 2.5k. But 2k visibly reduced the scratch pattern, and with some serious elbow grease I managed to remove the scratches.

I then worked up the progression I had tried earlier and ended up with a smooth, shiny, beautiful blade. Perfect? No. But close enough for a first attempt and 90 minutes of hand cramping work. And a definite improvement from where it started. I finished by polishing it with Flitz and called it a night. All in all, about as much effort as I expected, but with much better results than anticipated. And a significant amount of satisfaction in bringing this disfigured blade back to its natural state of beauty and function.

Next ... On to honing this blade (a Clauss U.S.M.C.) in order to PIF it to an active or retired Marine. And then, at some point, removing the most egregious staining on my more favored razors.
 
To be perfectly honest, I could take it a bit farther... Nonetheless ...

Before:
IMG_20190112_214325.jpg


After:
IMG_20190408_230257.jpg
 
Looks a million times better. And thats great you plan on giving it to a marine. It will definitely be well deserved as any service member gives everything to protect our freedom.
 
Big improvement!
Something else you can try as a final polish is to put a bit of Chromium oxide paste or diamond paste on a wine cork, or a finger pad sized bit of cardboard.
 
Nice job. Very thoughtful of you to PIF that.

You could have gone down in grit to the mid-hundreds, but then you'd risk loosing the most important part - USMC.
 
Thank you all. I'm quite pleased for a first attempt.

I have a fresh supply of elbow grease to apply, so I'll probably go back to 2k again to clean up a few places that need a little more love. Almost, but not quite, satisfied when I look at the pictures I took... I'll post final pictures when I get it all done.
 
OK. I'm calling it done. Any more and I'll start to lose more of the engraving than I'm willing to. Thanks to all for your kind words and encouragement. They are real confidence boosters and are greatly appreciated.

Final pic:
IMG_20190409_194752.jpg


Now, let the honing and PIFing commence ...
 
That razor wow it made it to RumpleBearskin as a
rusty nail.jpg
His wife went in search of some and found it
retail-elbow-elbow_grease-worker-working-hardware_stores-tzun720_low.jpg
Only cost $2 dollar
old fashoned elbow grease .jpg
3 hours later

usmc razor.jpg

Sit back and relax a well earned

elbow grease beer.jpg

That is a bloody good Restore Sir!!! And a great cause it's going to Respect to all..
sorry for so many pics but I just had to, that's come out fantastic a beautiful restore to a fantastic razor well done Sir!!! And I really do mean that.

:001_tt1::001_tt1::001_tt1::001_tt1::001_tt1::001_tt1::001_tt1::001_tt1::001_tt1::001_tt1:
 
Great job. :a29::a14:

When I first started sanding blades I used my old pocket knives and was amazed at the mirror images that were possible.
 
To be perfectly honest, I could take it a bit farther... Nonetheless ...

Before:
View attachment 970614

After:
View attachment 970615
Marine here (there are no ex-marines - I'm not active). I feel sort of silly saying I've never even seen one of these. Of course I was in in the 90's and there is no reason to think that we'd have had them issued to us. Were they standard issue at some point? Marines are fanatical about their facial hair, and hair cut, mainly for practical reasons like sealing the gas mask and such...but it becomes habit and eventually you just have to have that perfect, clean shave. I'll be checking eBay and a few other places for one of these. Are they common? Expensive?
 
@Pokeystotle - No need to check eBay. I am PIFing this razor over in the General Straight Razor Talk forum. Check the "PIF: Clauss USMC Straight Razor - US Marines Only" thread.
Ok, will do. If its around in a week, I'll take you up on it. I saw that they were issued during WWII which surprises me given how there was a take over of steel and raw materials were in such short supply given the war effort.
 
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