Hand sanding diminishing returns

**superbleu** · 11-22-2009, 07:33 PM

I have been sanding this Morley and son's razor for about 30 minutes by hand with 180grit wet/dry and mineral oil.
There is still quite a bit of deep pitting that I am pretty sure will not come out even if I keep sanding the rest of the month. But since this is my first time doing this sort of thing, I'm in need of some advice.
Should I keep going with 180grit, or call it good and deal with the pitting that remains and continue on with the sanding progression?

**mdunn** · 11-22-2009, 08:02 PM

I would give it a bit more sanding. Some of those really deep ones will stay, but you should be able to get rid of those shallow ones.

**Alacrity59** · 11-22-2009, 08:19 PM

Well it is a pit not a hole . . . so it my be down to what you can live with. I've been using some scotchbrite dremel wheels . . . a little bit quicker than hand sanding but you need to be careful. (means I like them)

**leighton** · 11-22-2009, 09:07 PM

Keep sanding little padawan.

And keep switching out the used up sandpaper.

**professorchaos** · 11-23-2009, 05:59 AM

I also find that a particular grit looses its effectiveness after a while. So if you are using 120 and find it isn't removing metal, polish out the 120 scratches with some 200. Then go back to the 120.

**gugi** · 11-23-2009, 08:37 AM

it'll be faster if you get coarser sandpaper.

**Cedrck** · 11-24-2009, 07:28 PM

You have to understand the steel is hardened, the sandpaper will wear out quickly and you find yourself unconsciously applying more pressure to get the paper to “cut” like it was when fresh. Add to that, the only way to remove the pits is to remove good hardened steel around the pit.

Cut the sheet into smaller strips and just pick up a fresh strip when the current one is spent and continue… you will know the paper is spent when it starts to “slide” instead of “biting” the steel... get used to that feeling and hand-sanding may be more bearable.

**English** · 11-25-2009, 05:55 AM

Yes, there are diminishing returns. I'd say it's at about the two hour point.

After you have done a couple, you will know which bladesare worth the effort.

The one you are working on looks to be worth the effort. The only bit that really matters is if there is pitting at or near the shaving edge. Such a razor is usually useless and beyond renovation.