Restoration of rusty old straight razor. This time better

In this video I'll be restoring an old rusty straight razor. In my last razor video the handle probably isn't as good as I can do but I'ts still my second watched video at the moment so I felt like I had to make another one with handle that sticks with the original design. (psst. the intro is a satire...)

I started by disassembly and rust removal. I used MC-51 rust remover overnight. After that the blade was easy to clean. This was followed by hours of sanding to remove some of the pitting from the blade. I think, when doing something like this you should try to find the balance of not removing too much material, as the blade is already very thin and still removing at least some of the pitting. After the sanding I evened edge on a diamond sharpening "stone" (actually thin plate https://amzn.to/2Xkfh0F). Then I polished the blade with metal polish compond and dremel with wool felt bits (https://amzn.to/2GpOpqk & https://amzn.to/2XhO1zO) and stropped in on 12 000 grit Micro-mesh pad someone recommended for me in the comments (https://amzn.to/2ICDr2i). Later I'll use a leather strop when needed. Abrasive stropping is not necessary in when using a razor but think it makes a good finish in this case.

I drew the design of the original handle on piece of walnut and cut it to shape on bandsaw. Then a shaped it a bit more on a belt sander and drilled holes for my pins. Only after this I split the handle in two halves to keep them as identical as possible. then I shaped the inside of the scales. the handle needed to fit between the scales. I also made a wedge for the other end of the handle.

I made a test vacuum chamber from glass jar and hoped it will hold up for the test and not crack. I merely added a tube to the lid and sealed it with silicone. I used cheap but powerfull vacuum pump I found on ebay. First time I tried it but it seemed to be well worth the money. Typically the ones that are not only the motor could cost easily over $100. You just need to figure out the electrics yourself. I used just a test set up with the electronics and I will do proper connections now that I have tested it works well.

The vacuum chamber was filled with Borma Wachs Holzhärter (https://amzn.to/2DeY9So) Which is a wood hardener typically applied to rotten wood surfaces etc. But I figured it should work similarly to cactus juice. Cactus juice would have been insanely expensive to ship (maybe $50 or more for just shipping) and I couldn't find anything similar locally. I submerged the parts in wood hardener and slowly pulled a vacuum in the chamer and waited for the bubbling to stop (wood had no air left). Then I let the air back in and the wood is left with vacuum which will then start pulling the wood hardener in. this could take an hour or so. You can see it worked because the wedge I used did not float after the process. The product I use will dry in room temperature unlike Cactus juice. But since the pieces were filled with it I wanted to speed up the drying by placing them on a radiator.

After parts had dried I assembled the handle using brass pin set I found from from ebay. I also put washers between blade and scales to allow better movement for the blade.

Thanks for watching. Please subscribe, like, comment and share as that helps me to create more content in the future.

SOME OF MY TOOLS:
RUST REMOVER: https://www.mc-51thebestrustremover.c...
POWER FILE: https://amzn.to/2URHvPq
CHUCK NORRIS’ TOOTHBRUSH: https://amzn.to/2YfXUj2
CORDLESS DRILL: https://amzn.to/2Wois77
BETTER ROTARY TOOL: https://amzn.to/2WF75I6
PRESS FOR ROTARY TOOL: https://amzn.to/2Uiv1Eu
2-AXIS TABLE FOR THE PRESS https://amzn.to/2WPkttl

MY FILMING GEAR:
MAIN CAMERA: https://amzn.to/2JvtKox
MAIN TRIPOD: https://amzn.to/2OlpYgn
MICROPHONE: https://amzn.to/2I80iDz
VIDEO LIGHTS: https://amzn.to/2FpJDaB
MAIN LENS: https://amzn.to/2Fm8yMk
CINEMATIC LENS: https://amzn.to/2TmNdHH
WIDE ANGLE LENS: https://amzn.to/2U7iJha
GOPRO: https://amzn.to/2U3eqU3


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