Thirsting For Knowledge

[wizard1]

Hello. yes i am as green as a pea (newb) i have just fallen in love with restoring, or wanting to restore, straight razors, i have bought half a dozen, i have read as much as i can, and even orderd bills cd on restoration, i have followed the knowledge on grates of sanding to wax and oil, but guess what, yep i messed up, firstly i took the most damaged blade i cold find to try my first restore (i guessed if i do the most difficult first, the others may be just a little easier, probably not.) anyways i decided to use a rotary on the blade to get rid of the most damage, i then went through the various grades of sanding, wire wool and even compound rubbing paste over a period of 2 days (what is the average sanding time per blade please?), this has brought a beautiful mirror finish to most of the blade but i still see little indents here and there, whilst using the rotary tonight i made matters worse and made more tiny indents etc, what can i use, preferably rotary for the moment, to get rid of the little holes/marks i see on the blade before i begin to sand it down again, thank you so much in advance for any help.
Regards
Wiz

 

[leighton]

The dremel or other rotary tool will always leave little indents if your using something abrasive. There is no getting around it. Either hand sand the dents/marks out, or live with them.

Now if your talking about pits, then you have to either keep sanding them until you grind away down to the bottom, or you can live with them. Keep in mind that too much grinding weakens the blade.

 

[sapito318]

A rotary tool is not the best method for removing pitting or dents caused by a grinder. It just does not do a good job, and you'll end up making more pits in the long run. The foolproof method of removing pitting is sandpaper and elbow grease. Try starting out at a lower grit, 120 should do of wet/dry sandpaper and use a little bit of WD40 to make it a bit easier. This will take a LONG time, so be prepared and have a good movie at hand. Also, it would be a good idea to make a razor sanding jig to hold your razor safely. LINK

Once the pitting has been removed, go ahead and use the rotary tool if you wish to finish the sanding and polishing. Dremel has a nice selection of sanding and polishing products if they are compatible with your rotary tool.

 

[profsaffel]

That's a fantastic spell, btw. Well, if you are a MTG player you know what I'm talking about... if not? Well, welcome to the B&B anyway!

View attachment 61872

 

[wedwards]

I have never seen many people have a lot of success with dremels at the sanding stage. Once saw a guy who had taken a bench grinder and completely rebuilt its motor so that it ran slow enough to not damage the blade - have some ideas about that and my stepdad might be able to do this for me, however a rotary-like tool at the sanding stage is generally not recommended.

Good old elbow grease and sandpaper are the order of the day, and you will get good results. As someone else suggested, sit down and watch a movie or 2 while you are doing it. In general I find it takes about 5 hours per razor give or take an hour and depending on its original state.

Basically I start with a coarse sandpaper to get all the rust/pitting out and then move up as you become happy with the finish. Its also important (especially at the coarser stages), to sand with the "grain" of the blade, and then against it - makes removal/buffing out of any scratchiness a bit easier.

They key thing, is not to move on from the coarse sandpaper until you are SURE the pitting has been removed to a satisfactory state - no amount of buffing etc with higher grade sandpaper, polishing, etc etc, will completely remove pitting if you dont get rid of it in the earlier stages (in my opinion and experience, but others might disagree).

 

[wizard1]

Thank you all for yor kind replies, so it seems to be hand sanding at the begining until you get what i would call satisfactory accetable pitting, ok, what struck me was the mention of the grinder being slowed down, is it best when and if using a rotary to use a slower speed? and finally what is the rotary best used for and what type of tools should i use for polishing and buffing, do i use a paste or just the tool?
Thank you
Regards
Wiz

 

[leighton]

Thank you all for yor kind replies, so it seems to be hand sanding at the begining until you get what i would call satisfactory accetable pitting, ok, what struck me was the mention of the grinder being slowed down, is it best when and if using a rotary to use a slower speed? and finally what is the rotary best used for and what type of tools should i use for polishing and buffing, do i use a paste or just the tool?
Thank you
Regards
Wiz

Bench grinder = poor man's buffing machine. I don't recommend it.

Yes, slower speeds are generally better. Go slow, you don't want to overheat the blade.

The rotary is best for polishing. Check out my thread, you can see the limits of the rotary tool.

Use T-wax premium.

I recommend waiting for Bill's CD to arrive, it will make everything clearer.

 

[Solemnsaint]

Could someone leave a link to finding this restorer's guide? Bill's. And MTG is still hip... inmy own little world. Tap two island mana...

 

[GsSixgun]

Interesting thread,

But I am going expand a bit and give you some options...

The absolute best way so far that we have found to polish out old blades is using a bench buffer from 1725 - 3450 rpm and greaseless compounds from 80-600 followed by polishing compounds from Emory -Wax

That is the best way (so far) the problem is that unless you do a ton of razors and get paid for it this is not very cost effective , it is also very dangerous to you and the blades.... Start up on this system is in the 100's of $$$...

Dremel/rotary tools are OK polishers but weak cleaners.... many people swear by them though and the little brushes and flap wheels that come with them....Hint keep the edge of the blade safe or you will snap one...

I find like you have already noticed that they are rather uneven and tend to leave marks...

Hand sanding is a foolproof method, but is really labor intensive and doesn't do so good on pitting, you basically have to take the face of the blade down to the lowest level of the pitting... It really is a simple as that...
This is why restoring heavier blades is easier, you have more metal to grind away...

Speaking of which you can literally grind it away using a rotary/belt grinder...but you better be talented at it's use ... Oh and there is that startup cost, and belt cost...

So now you can see why most people just use sandpaper and elbow grease....



Those are I believe, all your options ... and each one comes with it's own separate downside...