Sheffield Straight Restorations, questions

I have a couple of Sheffield straight razors I'm attempting to restore. I've already removed the scales and sanded starting with 400 working my way up to 2000 and polishing with Flitz. I've heard that other people sand all the way up to 8000 and use a white diamond polish. Does anyone have any suggestions to get a true mirror shine out of these razors without buying tons of sand paper at $8-10 a pack? Also, the scales for the Jordan broke when I was taking the pin out, but the Manhattan horn scales survived when I took them apart. I was planning on sending off these razors to be rescaled and honed. Should I try to save the Manhattan scales by sanding them down and adding epoxy to the bug holes? Does it matter that the scales have a slight curve to them? Any and all suggestions would be appreciated... These are my first restoration projects.

The razors look great as they are. The razor makers back when did not do mirror surfaces. Not saying that you can't do that if that is how you like them but restore to me means back to original shape. Anyway, you got some good looking razors. Now for some scales, hone them up and smooth shaves.


Mike

You should buy a small pack of Micromesh. Here in England I buy them through Amazon from a Mrs Goodall. The grades are 1500, 1800, 2400, 3200, 3600, 4000, 6000, 8000 and 12000. I use this material a lot in restoring fountain pens and have found it very useful for polishing razors. A 12000 polish with careful preparation will make Celluloid look like new. I then finish with Autosol or Simichrome and sometimes Renaissance Wax.

Micromesh is very hard wearing and can be used wet or dry.

C.

Filling the holes wouldn't hurt anything. I personally like the way they look now. I would just do a light sanding to remove anything major and help uniform the color, then put a sealer on them

For around $15.00 you can get a multi grit pack of micro mesh that will take care of it and it lasts very well. When the sheet gets full I use a little soap and water and it is ready to go again.

Brianskeet said:

For around $15.00 you can get a multi grit pack of micro mesh that will take care of it and it lasts very well. When the sheet gets full I use a little soap and water and it is ready to go again.

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Thank you I'll look it up tonight!