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My first re-pinning job

S

standardgewehr

Active Member
I recently picked up a supposedly new old stock Dubl Duck Pearlduck SatinEdge straight. When it arrived, the scales seemed rough inside, the tang pin was loose, and the plastic piece on the center pin was loose as well. There was black spotting on the blade in a couple places, especially on the spine, and rust on the tail of the tang. The razor would not reliably close on center, and flopped open if inverted. I paid a premium for this razor just because I wanted it, and toyed with this idea of returning it "not as advertised", but why not step up to the challenge? It appeared to never have been honed, and was hardly a junker as purchased... I really wanted to take it that extra step and make it something special.

Common sense dictates I should have sent a desirable razor like this to a honemeister specializing in restorations, but I figured what the heck... this gives me a good reason to be careful. :scared:

When I de-pinned the razor, I found the pivot pin was horribly bent. I lapped the inside of the scales on my DMT extra fine diamond plate, then buffed them inside and out with white rouge on a bench grinder with a polishing wheel. Following instructions (at least as best as I could) from GSSIXGUN on SRP, I re-pinned using replacement stainless pins and washers made by TI I purchased online... and I'll be darned if it didn't work out just fine. I did ruin a couple pins getting the hang of how to reduce their diameter so the washers would slip on, but other than that, no worries despite having only an 8 oz. ball peen hammer instead of the recommended 4 oz. It is now perfectly centered and properly tight. The translucent scales give it a unique look, it's interesting to be able to see the copper washers between the tang and scales.

While the blade was out, I took off the corrosion with 600 grit wet/dry paper, a cratex stick, and a progression of Dremel abrasive rotary brushes and mops. Final polish was with Simichrone and then "Peek" which I believe is generic Flitz. 99.9% of the marks from corrosion came out and the blade shined up nicely. The magnetic blade holding jig I somehow had the foresight to purchase from Straight Razor Sharp... a true Godsend. Highly recommended! Thanks Ray for a quality product for a fair price... and definitely worth its weight in the chopped up body parts it helps prevent. :blink:

The razor took a lot of half strokes on slurry before it would cut arm hair, but man oh man did it hone up sharp (by my newbie standards.) I'll be stropping and shaving with it tomorrow morning! Not a perfect 100% professional restoration job, but for my first re-pin I'm cautiously pleased. Your comments, advice, and constructive criticism are welcome!

Oh... there are a few flaws in my work for sure, but the smudge on the spine is just a fingerprint smudge... I'm not telling what the real flaws I managed to leave are!!! :rolleyes: Plenty of room for improvement on my part.

On to the pictures! I apologize for the crappy photography and poor lighting.

DD1.jpg


DD2.jpg


DD3.jpg


DD4.jpg


Thanks as always for this great site, and the inspiration you all provide!
 
standardgewehr said:
I recently picked up a supposedly new old stock Dubl Duck Pearlduck SatinEdge straight. When it arrived, the scales seemed rough inside, the tang pin was loose, and the plastic piece on the center pin was loose as well. There was black spotting on the blade in a couple places, especially on the spine, and rust on the tail of the tang. The razor would not reliably close on center, and flopped open if inverted. I paid a premium for this razor just because I wanted it, and toyed with this idea of returning it "not as advertised", but why not step up to the challenge? It was hardly a junker as purchased, but I really wanted to take it that extra step.

Common sense dictates I should have sent a desirable razor like this to a honemeister specializing in restorations, but I figured what the heck... this gives me a good reason to be careful. :scared:

When I de-pinned the razor, I found the pivot pin was horribly bent. I lapped the inside of the scales on my DMT extra fine diamond plate, then buffed them inside and out with white rouge on a bench grinder with a polishing wheel. Following instructions from GSSIXGUN on SRP, I re-pinned using replacement stainless pins and washers made by TI I purchased online... and I'll be darned if it didn't work out just fine. I did ruin a couple pins getting the hang of how to reduce their diameter so the washers would slip on, but other than that, no worries despite having only an 8 oz. ball peen hammer instead of the recommended 4 oz. It is now perfectly centered and properly tight.

The razor took a lot of half strokes on slurry before it would cut arm hair, but man oh man did it hone up sharp (by my newbie standards.) I'll be stropping and shaving with it tomorrow morning! Not a perfect 100% professional restoration job, but for my first re-pin I'm cautiously pleased. Your comments, advice, and constructive criticism are welcome!

On to the pictures! I apologize for the crappy photography and poor lighting.

DD1.jpg


DD2.jpg


DD3.jpg


DD4.jpg


As always, my appreciation for this site and the inspiration you all provide, without which I would not be posting! :thumbup:
Click to expand...
 
YOWZERS!
That looks like a top notch job from where I am sitting, absolutely beautiful, Good job :thumbup:
You would never know that you have not done this before I am struggling to find fault, and cannot think of a reason that anyone would not be proud of the work you have done.
If you decide that the hone job you did isnt up to scratch and would like me to do it for you free, just email and we can set that up, well done She looks like a real keeper for sure.
 
Thanks Ralfy, much obliged for the kind words! Hopefully it is onward and upward from here... I have some much more serious restoration projects to attempt including some nice heavy wedges, quite the opposite of this delicate fowl.

As luck (more than anything else at this point) would have it, the shave was one of the best I've gotten out of a straight to date. In fact, it felt so smooth that I went a bit overboard and did more passes than usual to get that Nth degree of smoothness... with no ill effect beyond a wee red mark that disappeared during my drive to work.

I keep swearing to stop my search for new old razors to buy and try... might have to break that vow (again) if I stumble across another Dubl Duck at a reasonable price. The blade profile on this Satinedge is paper thin in profile, a super noisy but super smooth shaver. I was actually going against the grain with much more comfort and confidence than I have ever managed to go before, even though it sounded like I was scraping a burnt piece of toast!

If you get a shot at a nice Duck, take it!

Looking forward to the carousel once it kicks off for sure!
 
Super Cool :thumbup:
as luck would have it i am just lining up a shot on a nice NOS Dubl Duck myself,lets hope I can bag it for a low price
 
Holey duckling… for your first effort, you did better than I did, and only ruined a couple of pins,I ruined a half dozen. You should be proud, the duck turned out looking yummy, looking forward to see more of your work.
...But watch it! the razor restoration addiction will burn a hole through your wallet.
 
Thanks Mates!

Addiction? I can quit anytime I want to! :) Whoops still have several items on my E-bray "watch list", two Kamisori en-route from Japan, and other items en-route domestically. But really, I can quit! My wallet has only begun to char around the edges really so I'm still ok. :scared:

More time than a new mistress... I think that would be about 15 seconds, which is the time that would elapse before Frau Standardgewehr brained me with my shaving scuttle... :blink: LOL
 
LOL I don't even remember how many times I edited that post... once I had a chance to think about it, the whole thing gave me the heebie jeebies. :blink:
 
Speaking of Ducks and wallets burnt to a crisp, I just picked up a 7/8 square point DD Special #1 BRAND SPANKING NEW IN THE EVER-LOVING FACTORY WRAPPER. :w00t: :lol: :w00t: It appears to have an extremely fine edge right out of the wrap. This is almost too nice to shave with, but I mean to use it as it was intended.

Although I am still doing the happy dance and gibbering like a madman, the rational part of my brain (small though it may be) noted that the spine and entire tang are indeed blued as I have heard some straights were. Does anyone know the exact bluing process used? Rust blue, "dip" or hot caustic salt blue, carbona blue? Or is it merely a sort of "fire blue" left over from some heat treating process?

As a firearms enthusiast familiar with all of the above bluing processes (I have done my own rust bluing and zinc phosphate finishes before) I really can't quite put my finger on it. I might even have to rust blue one of my in-the-works restorations and see how it turns out... :)
 
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