Thread: Cleaning old razor

Hello again. I posted a similar question just before the crash, but never got to check the replies. Now I have rejoined and can ask again.

I now have three old razors. All of them from ebay my total cost less then $40.00, so you can imagine the shape they are in. What is the recomended method of removing rust? One of the blades has a couple of small nicks. I would estimate .5mm deep. Will normal honing take care of these, or do I need to do something extra?

thank you in advance

I've been using steel wool to remove rust, I'll only do this on a blade that is rusty enough to warrent it. The grade I use is 00 which might be the finest available, in any case it does the trick without leaving any scratches at all on the non-rusted parts. (Look at some cleaned up blades and you'll see what damage a coarse grade of steel wool. or sandpaper, or a wire brush in a drill chuck can do.)
00 wool takes a long time to clean off all the rust but will get there in the end. If the blade is badly nicked then I'd start with a diamond hone to establish the bevel. This does take a lot off the spine as well; I've got a couple that I'm considering sending off to someone with greater skill than myself to see if they can re-set the edge without too much hone wear; but for simply turning a beater into a functioning razor then the DMT diamond does the job quickly.

I know this post is a little old, but there is a #0000
steel wool out there. As far as I know that is the finest.

John

Originally Posted by Chander

Hello again. I posted a similar question just before the crash, but never got to check the replies. Now I have rejoined and can ask again.

I now have three old razors. All of them from ebay my total cost less then $40.00, so you can imagine the shape they are in. What is the recomended method of removing rust? One of the blades has a couple of small nicks. I would estimate .5mm deep. Will normal honing take care of these, or do I need to do something extra?

thank you in advance

Go to the restoration forum. All the answers are there.