Straight Razor Repair and Restore

JAWilliams

KNIFEMAKER
Ok thought I would share my project with everyone. I got these straight razors very cheap. There are reasons for this, most of them are in very bad shape and some are in fair shape.

The first pic is a group shot.
019.jpg


Now you can see why they went so cheap.

What I am going to do is remove the scales. Now there is a couple of ways to do this. One is using a dremel tool. If you are wanting to save the scale I would not suggest this unless you are very confident in your grinding. You will pass over this the pin until it come loose.

S3600048.jpg


The other way it to take a 1/16" drill bit and drip it out.

Once you have gotten all the scales off it is time to look and see what needs to be done. Just a couple of shots.

/
027.jpg

022.jpg


Now here is the part that might suprise some of you. I take and polish these razors. The reason for this is I will find more with it polish to mirror or right at mirror. The problems stand out. and I can see who made it.

036.jpg


From inspecting these I have found alot of pitting and rust stains. Some of these might not be able to be saved. But I will finish these out because it will give me the practice and I can still display them.
 
So from here we can go two different ways. We will go with the hand sanding right now. I started off with a 220 grit then went to 320, 400 and finally 600. I didn' get all the pitting out. some was too deep and I would have taken too much off of the razor. So after this I grabbed good old "Mothers mag and aluminum polish" and went to work.
S3600054.jpg

Not bad, so now to pick some scales out. I am going to go with stabilized quilted maple. This will wait till I have a couple of more done and I have to get washers and pins.
S3600056.jpg

Oh and yes that is the name of the Razor, "HO-MADE".
 
Most of the top razor restoration people use the wet sanding compound . The stuff that you apply to a buffing wheel, 220 and 400 are the most common and will really make sanding 10 times easier. Hand sanding youll find takes a long time and really doesnt get all the pits out but its a learning curve well all found the hard way first lol kellyw
 
Kelly you are right, but I wanted to show a couple of ways to do it. Just like with making a knife with files and then with a grinder. Yes the hand sanding takes longer and might not get out all of the pitting. Later on I will show with the buffing wheels and greaseless buffing compounds. Thanks for pointing this out.

James
 
Last edited:
OK the pit was deep near the edge but it came out. If it hadn't it would have been a nick when they go to hone it. I can grind the edge down past this point but it would take away from the width of the razor. Picture of the pit near edge.
002-2.jpg

Picture of it after hand sanding. I started off with 150,220,320,400 and 600. Still has alot of work left.
S3600009.jpg
 
Wow, you are one patient dude James! Great restoration work and a great project. I just wish I had come up with the name "Ho-Made" first. LOL!!!
 
Back
Top