Thread: restoring and creating new jimps

How would I best go about restoring and creating new jimps on a restoration? I can see hand filing existing jimps but what about accuracy for newly created grooves? I've seen some beautiful filework on handmade razors and wondered if the spacing of the grooves is accomplished with some sort of jig or fixture. Is a Dremel tool of any use here, considering its tendency to run amok? Thanks for your help.

Chances are the tang is hardened. In that case you won't be able to file even a dent. As to cleaning jimps. There are several ways to skin a cat. Folded Sandpaper, checkering file, triangle file, three square 60° or 90° bent needle file,... The files mentioned can also be used to add jimps but the steel should be un-hardened or you will use up your file. Some use a jig. Either way, I don't advocate and believe in using a Dremel but files.

Just to add a cleaning method, I have also found that steel wool works quite well, especially if you move it perpendicular to the tang. I would guess a wire brush would be similar.

I have used Dremel with wire brush attachment, it works but Dremel is dangerous for the razor and you so you need to be careful if you go this way.
As Max said above file works great and for me provides the best result.

I think if it is anything like a typical razor, it is soft enough for a file to do harm, but not soft enough for it to do any good. Not many of the finest needle files, even, have a sharp enough corner, and it takes only a tiny piece of misalignment to make the jimping look very irregular.

One piece of good news is that there may well be no pitting in the grooves, which probably nothing solid has touched. See where you get with a little jeweller's rouge or diamond paste on a hand brush or one for the Dremel, in bristles or brass. I'm extremely fond of a tiny brush with a single row of plastic-bristle tufts, which came with an electric shaver. That will teach them, eh?

There is also a tool which will restore or cut new jimping to perfection - so much so that I am sure old Sheffield must have used something similar. It is a gunsmith's checkering file, from Brownells or eBay, which has evenly-spaced lines of teeth on its cutting surfaces. They are classified in number of grooves per inch. They are expensive, but for your money you also get one of the finest fast-cutting wood rasps there is, for small, precise work.

The snag, and it is a big one, is that they are very easily ruined on hard steel. There is no real reason why you shouldn't grip the razor in something which will absorb heat making for the edge, and gently heat the tang until royal blue starts to look faded. But this is something you would want to get right.

I too have used a dremel with a brass wire crush attachment or one of the nylon bristle ones. As mentioned above though, the dremel is a dangerous tool and be sure to operate it on low speeds.

I swear that a couple months ago I saw a thread where somebody made a handy little jimping jig and used a filed down hacksaw blade to make the jimps but I can't find the thread. Perhaps your googlefu is better than mine...

Originally Posted by steveg

How would I best go about restoring and creating new jimps on a restoration? I can see hand filing existing jimps but what about accuracy for newly created grooves? I've seen some beautiful filework on handmade razors and wondered if the spacing of the grooves is accomplished with some sort of jig or fixture. Is a Dremel tool of any use here, considering its tendency to run amok? Thanks for your help.

A Dremel can work.

For restoring so can a chopstick carved to the right shape used
with wet dry paper or loose grit.

For cutting new you will have to experiment. You can pick up
a handful of big nails and experiment. You can tape the sharp bit
for safety. You can make a clamp with wood that holds the
razor tight and securely.

Thanks, guys, for your responses most of which confirmed my thoughts about hardened steel. Caledonian and Maximilian mentioned the use of checkering files and I had thought of them but in a different application...handles. I haven't seen any gunstock style checkering on any wooden or plastic (or bone or horn for that matter) handles and wondered why. It would seem like a natural treatment that would add a bit of class to plain handles. I've been through 90 odd pages of customs here and have yet to see any examples of this. Thanks again for your responses.

Originally Posted by steveg

Thanks, guys, for your responses most of which confirmed my thoughts about hardened steel. Caledonian and Maximilian mentioned the use of checkering files and I had thought of them but in a different application...handles. I haven't seen any gunstock style checkering on any wooden or plastic (or bone or horn for that matter) handles and wondered why. It would seem like a natural treatment that would add a bit of class to plain handles. I've been through 90 odd pages of customs here and have yet to see any examples of this. Thanks again for your responses.

The most likely reason for that is that you don't actually hold the razor by the flat of the scales. Checkering would stop lather from being simply wiped away, and in wood it might well give water a chance to get into end grain. Impregnating with cyanoacrylate or varnishing heavily would simply fill up the grooves. If you want to do it, I think bone might be the best material. Plastic would just look like it has been moulded.