So I’ve been restoring blades for roughly ten years now (with some long gaps in the middle), and have also done a lot of hand tool restorations for myself and on commissions.
Rust removal/polishing has, and will always be the thin despise most. It takes up THE MAJORITY of my time and energy, and is extremely monotonous/boring.
I have done it ALL. Electrolysis/LYE tanks, bead blasting, evaporust, wire wheels (steel and 100 % brass), sandpaper, scotchbrite, steel wool, Dremel (and every attachment they have ever made), vinegar baths, etc, etc, etc…
The only one I haven’t done (due to the insane cost and licensing requirement) is high powered laser rust removal.
Some things work better in different scenarios, but I almost always end up going back to paper for at least a portion of a job. My right hand is chronically sore/tight from countless hours of sanding tiny areas for what seems like eternities. I wish I could just take everything that had rust on it over to my 3m Deburring/Polishing wheel and go to town, but it’s not an option (especially with razors).
Well I believe that I may have discovered something that will absolutely change the game of restoring razors for me (and possibly you too)
I’ve never been a fan of using a dremel on razors before; learned that the hard way. There isn’t a single attachment/ accessory that allowed you to remove rust/polish in a precise manner (without removing too much steel, doing it in s non-uniform way, overheating, etc…). The sanding wheels (strip of paper wrapped around a rubber cylinder) dig out chunks even at the highest grit. The sanding disks aren’t the right shape, and also are very difficult to stay precise with. The buffing sponges (those bushy grey and purple things) are overpriced garbage and start deteriorating the second you touch a surface them.
Well recently Ryobi has moved in on Dremel’s castle, and now there is a large dedicated Ryobi attachment/tool section right next to Dremel’s in HD. I’m constantly buying stuff there for my various restoration projects, and have an absurd amount of dremel stuff. Ryobi stuff is interchangeable (same diameter collets so the tools can be used interchangeably), so I decided to try some of it (it’s a lot cheaper than dremel stuff, for example, the Dremel High Capacity Cutting Wheel Disk is $30. $30 for a single metal cutting disk, and that doesn’t even include the easy lock mandrel that it locks onto. It’s supposed to last 10x longer than one of the standard cutting disks. The Ryobi version is $19.99, so 1/3rd cheaper.)
I grabbed one each of these abrasive cleaning/polishing wheel things that look like they are made up of dozens of rubber arms. Kind of like a flap wheel. Three grits are sold; 80-yellow, 120-white, 220-red.
I got home and grabbed one of the rusted blades I’ve had lying around forever, set up my corded dremel with flex shaft and new ryobi attachment, threw on my PPE (ALWAYS WEAR EYE PROTECTION with dremel, and a mask if you are gonna be there for more than a minute. ALWAYS. I’d be missing an eye right now if I didn’t, as I once had a sanding wheel tear and fly off the tool directly into the center of my protective glasses. It left a divot and some material. ALWAYS WEAR EYE PRO WITH DREMEL.)
I laid the blade flat and used a piece of painters tape to secure the edge to the bench top. (Piece of tape parallel to edge with only 1/16” overlapping onto the blade, basically just the bevel is covered.). Another VERY IMPORTANT consideration is the orientation of the blade in relation to the direction in which the tool rotates. Imagine the blade had a big arrow pointing from spine to edge. That is the direction your tool should be spinning in. If you go the opposite way (tool spinning towards spine), a disaster is imminent. The edge will catch the tool and bad things will happen.
It took less than a minute to uniformly remove everything that I didn’t want on the blade WITHOUT taking away a bunch of unnecessary metal. Went up in grit and was amazed by how polished it was. Finished on the 220 and it’s essentially a mirror (still gonna finish with high grit wet/dry and mothers mag).
They are the BEST method of restoration that isn’t by hand by far. No contest. I went back to Home Depot and bought a box of each grit (4 in a box). $7 each I believe. The thing that sucks is you cannot buy them ANYWHERE else. It’s a Home Depot exclusive product or something. You can have them shipped by Home Depot, but no other store/site sells them.
These aren’t some totally new type of attachment; they have existed in some form for a long time. I’ve tried the others in the past. This particular one by RYOBI is special. The wheel is wider (more surface contact) and the abrasive arms are more flexible. It just works. I’m gonna try recording a video to show how effective they are.
One last thing. These are e great and miles ahead of anything else out there for dremel powered razor restoration, but they aren’t magic. The operator still has to know what they are doing and use it appropriately. Setting the proper tool speed (start low and increase to optimal setting), applying the proper amount of pressure, keeping the spinning attachment moving at all times should never let it stay in one spot or it will remove too much), stopping occasionally to allow the metal to cool down, etc, etc, etc…. Any one of these things can cause irreversible damage if forgotten/neglected.
Anyhow, I’m attaching a photo of what these things look like. I’ll try getting video today too. Cheers.
Rust removal/polishing has, and will always be the thin despise most. It takes up THE MAJORITY of my time and energy, and is extremely monotonous/boring.
I have done it ALL. Electrolysis/LYE tanks, bead blasting, evaporust, wire wheels (steel and 100 % brass), sandpaper, scotchbrite, steel wool, Dremel (and every attachment they have ever made), vinegar baths, etc, etc, etc…
The only one I haven’t done (due to the insane cost and licensing requirement) is high powered laser rust removal.
Some things work better in different scenarios, but I almost always end up going back to paper for at least a portion of a job. My right hand is chronically sore/tight from countless hours of sanding tiny areas for what seems like eternities. I wish I could just take everything that had rust on it over to my 3m Deburring/Polishing wheel and go to town, but it’s not an option (especially with razors).
Well I believe that I may have discovered something that will absolutely change the game of restoring razors for me (and possibly you too)
I’ve never been a fan of using a dremel on razors before; learned that the hard way. There isn’t a single attachment/ accessory that allowed you to remove rust/polish in a precise manner (without removing too much steel, doing it in s non-uniform way, overheating, etc…). The sanding wheels (strip of paper wrapped around a rubber cylinder) dig out chunks even at the highest grit. The sanding disks aren’t the right shape, and also are very difficult to stay precise with. The buffing sponges (those bushy grey and purple things) are overpriced garbage and start deteriorating the second you touch a surface them.
Well recently Ryobi has moved in on Dremel’s castle, and now there is a large dedicated Ryobi attachment/tool section right next to Dremel’s in HD. I’m constantly buying stuff there for my various restoration projects, and have an absurd amount of dremel stuff. Ryobi stuff is interchangeable (same diameter collets so the tools can be used interchangeably), so I decided to try some of it (it’s a lot cheaper than dremel stuff, for example, the Dremel High Capacity Cutting Wheel Disk is $30. $30 for a single metal cutting disk, and that doesn’t even include the easy lock mandrel that it locks onto. It’s supposed to last 10x longer than one of the standard cutting disks. The Ryobi version is $19.99, so 1/3rd cheaper.)
I grabbed one each of these abrasive cleaning/polishing wheel things that look like they are made up of dozens of rubber arms. Kind of like a flap wheel. Three grits are sold; 80-yellow, 120-white, 220-red.
I got home and grabbed one of the rusted blades I’ve had lying around forever, set up my corded dremel with flex shaft and new ryobi attachment, threw on my PPE (ALWAYS WEAR EYE PROTECTION with dremel, and a mask if you are gonna be there for more than a minute. ALWAYS. I’d be missing an eye right now if I didn’t, as I once had a sanding wheel tear and fly off the tool directly into the center of my protective glasses. It left a divot and some material. ALWAYS WEAR EYE PRO WITH DREMEL.)
I laid the blade flat and used a piece of painters tape to secure the edge to the bench top. (Piece of tape parallel to edge with only 1/16” overlapping onto the blade, basically just the bevel is covered.). Another VERY IMPORTANT consideration is the orientation of the blade in relation to the direction in which the tool rotates. Imagine the blade had a big arrow pointing from spine to edge. That is the direction your tool should be spinning in. If you go the opposite way (tool spinning towards spine), a disaster is imminent. The edge will catch the tool and bad things will happen.
It took less than a minute to uniformly remove everything that I didn’t want on the blade WITHOUT taking away a bunch of unnecessary metal. Went up in grit and was amazed by how polished it was. Finished on the 220 and it’s essentially a mirror (still gonna finish with high grit wet/dry and mothers mag).
They are the BEST method of restoration that isn’t by hand by far. No contest. I went back to Home Depot and bought a box of each grit (4 in a box). $7 each I believe. The thing that sucks is you cannot buy them ANYWHERE else. It’s a Home Depot exclusive product or something. You can have them shipped by Home Depot, but no other store/site sells them.
These aren’t some totally new type of attachment; they have existed in some form for a long time. I’ve tried the others in the past. This particular one by RYOBI is special. The wheel is wider (more surface contact) and the abrasive arms are more flexible. It just works. I’m gonna try recording a video to show how effective they are.
One last thing. These are e great and miles ahead of anything else out there for dremel powered razor restoration, but they aren’t magic. The operator still has to know what they are doing and use it appropriately. Setting the proper tool speed (start low and increase to optimal setting), applying the proper amount of pressure, keeping the spinning attachment moving at all times should never let it stay in one spot or it will remove too much), stopping occasionally to allow the metal to cool down, etc, etc, etc…. Any one of these things can cause irreversible damage if forgotten/neglected.
Anyhow, I’m attaching a photo of what these things look like. I’ll try getting video today too. Cheers.