Straight Razor Restoration Thread

[GearNoir]

Wowza Eric (and I mean the razor)!

 

[DeepSea]

Decided to just jump in head first and take a crack at restoring a razor. The lowest wet/dry grit I could find locally is 400 but I think the progress is going well so far. A little over an hour into it hand sanding using WD40. If time allows tomorrow I’ll take it up to 2000 and get some pinning material.

 

[Smattayu]

Great job so far! The early work is pivotal in determining the final result and it looks like you're being thorough.

 

[DeepSea]

Thanks you Eric. I’m thinking about taking another pass at it with the 400 just to be on the safe side.

 

[Luecke3262]

Did a simple rescale on this old S. R. Droescher, Classic. If I’d thought about it, it would have looked cool to Blue the tang and spine, but leave the highly polished “classic” Diamond as shiny metal. I may yet do this, but for now I’ll be content shaving with this 100 year old beauty.

Rescaled with well aged vintage bone(nice honey color) from a no name broken razor in my parts box.

 

[Luecke3262]

I restored the 7/8, 1/2 hollow, French Point(ish) Wade and Butcher from my weekend antique store find. I unpinned the razor and dropped the horn scales into a bag of Neatsfoot oil, so they could rehydrate, gave them 4 days. I lightly sanded the rusted spots with 1k, 1500, 2k, 2500, and 3k wet dry sandpaper, before buffing with black Emory and green stainless steel compound. I don’t like them to look new, I feel like it takes away all the history behind this old blade. So, cleaned and polished to this point is usually as far as I will take them.
For the scales, I did a light sand with 3k wet dry sandpaper and then buffed them off with some Flitz polish. Put it all back together and I’ll be honing it up tonight on Naniwa 1, 5, 8, Coticule and finishing on an Escher Barbers Delight.

 

[Scuttlesoap]

I restored the 7/8, 1/2 hollow, French Point(ish) Wade and Butcher from my weekend antique store find.

Absolutely marvelous work my friend!

 

[OpusX]

George Weyer KCMO marked JA Henckels 401 Platinum. Light polish, leaving a gentle patina. Honed 600, 1500, 8000, 60000 films. Ready for a test shave.

 

[OpusX]

Recieved a new to me Curtain Clark and Company fancy razor. It seems to be in overall good condition. Heck it was bevel set enough to pop some hairs (and kiss my kuckle pretty well).

The only real problem was a bit of rust over the makers marks.

I hit it with some 0000 steel wool and got it down to the light pitting it left. Everything else polishes well. Hone and test shave soon.

 

[Luecke3262]

Cleaned up this Royal Kaiser Razor from Spokane B.S Co, Spokane, Washington. Made in Germany

It needed some detail cleaning with the Dremel steel brush and then a solid polish with black Emory and green Stainless compound. Polished the scales with Flitz liquid polish.

Interestingly it has jimps on the top and bottom of the tang all the way down the tail(not common for sure). Should have taken a before photo…

 

[novicewetshaver]

nicely done, beautiful razor!!

 

[Jaro1069]

Cleaned up this Royal Kaiser Razor from Spokane B.S Co, Spokane, Washington. Made in Germany

It needed some detail cleaning with the Dremel steel brush and then a solid polish with black Emory and green Stainless compound. Polished the scales with Flitz liquid polish.

Interestingly it has jimps on the top and bottom of the tang all the way down the tail(not common for sure). Should have taken a before photo…
View attachment 89368

Matt @Luecke3262
Where do you find all these cool straight razors to restore ?? Every one I see in antique stores has cracked or really rusty blades usually or they want an outrageous amount for them !! Also another question for you please.. Well first I will say that the highest grit stone I have is an 8k synthetic ,So my question is , what would you recommend as a finishing grit? Also keep in mind this would need to also be a limited budget one..... Also Thanks in advance for any info from you or also anyone else who may respond...

 

[Longhaultanker]

Will your next shave video use this razor? Hope so.

 

[Luecke3262]

Matt @Luecke3262
Where do you find all these cool straight razors to restore ?? Every one I see in antique stores has cracked or really rusty blades usually or they want an outrageous amount for them !! Also another question for you please.. Well first I will say that the highest grit stone I have is an 8k synthetic ,So my question is , what would you recommend as a finishing grit? Also keep in mind this would need to also be a limited budget one..... Also Thanks in advance for any info from you or also anyone else who may respond...

Hey, good morning! A lot of what I’m restoring/cleaning up is from several large straight razor lots that I bought over the last two years. One of the lots had more than 800 razors, of which 400+/- we junk from cell rot or broken/worn out. I still have around 300 blades from these lots that need to be restored and many more that are parts/practice razors.
The blades I’m finding in antique malls are always hit and miss and most days I don’t see anything at all or they are broken and rusted. Believe it or not, I have most of my luck on eBay lately, by using the saved searches to hunt for specific razors. There are sellers you’ll find on eBay that know nothing about straights, but have massive amounts of razors that they list at one time, so often you’ll get lucky and buy two or three nice razors with little cleanup at once. Most of what I do takes time, but once you have a process down they will start showing up and you’ll start getting some nice scores.

For a finishing grit, I’d say something in the 10,000 grit or higher. You can shave off an 8,000 but it won’t be super comfortable. I’d suggest you look at Imperia La Roccia, they are around 10k and I’ve had good results with them. The 6X2 is around $50. You can also look at a Dan’s translucent Arkansas which for a 6X2 is close to the same price as the ILR. The other direction you could go is Coticule, but the quality of the stones is hard to know without working with it, so you could end up with a lower or higher grit, unless it’s been tested by a straight razor user and depending they can be on the higher price range. I like to suggest Jasper hones because of their ease of use and how hard they are, but they are a bit pricier

 

[Luecke3262]

Will your next shave video use this razor? Hope so.

That’s my plan, thanks Leon!

 

[Luecke3262]

Hey, good morning! A lot of what I’m restoring/cleaning up is from several large straight razor lots that I bought over the last two years. One of the lots had more than 800 razors, of which 400+/- we junk from cell rot or broken/worn out. I still have around 300 blades from these lots that need to be restored and many more that are parts/practice razors.
The blades I’m finding in antique malls are always hit and miss and most days I don’t see anything at all or they are broken and rusted. Believe it or not, I have most of my luck on eBay lately, by using the saved searches to hunt for specific razors. There are sellers you’ll find on eBay that know nothing about straights, but have massive amounts of razors that they list at one time, so often you’ll get lucky and buy two or three nice razors with little cleanup at once. Most of what I do takes time, but once you have a process down they will start showing up and you’ll start getting some nice scores.

For a finishing grit, I’d say something in the 10,000 grit or higher. You can shave off an 8,000 but it won’t be super comfortable. I’d suggest you look at Imperia La Roccia, they are around 10k and I’ve had good results with them. The 6X2 is around $50. You can also look at a Dan’s translucent Arkansas which for a 6X2 is close to the same price as the ILR. The other direction you could go is Coticule, but the quality of the stones is hard to know without working with it, so you could end up with a lower or higher grit, unless it’s been tested by a straight razor user and depending they can be on the higher price range. I like to suggest Jasper hones because of their ease of use and how hard they are, but they are a bit pricier

@Jaro1069 looks like the rest of my message got cut off.

I’d suggest saving for a few months to pick up a nice Jasper stone if you can and watch for sales! Higher grit synthetic stones work too, like the Naniwa 12k, but you’re gonna pay for it, so wait and save for these options. I hope this helps

 

[Jaro1069]

Hey, good morning! A lot of what I’m restoring/cleaning up is from several large straight razor lots that I bought over the last two years. One of the lots had more than 800 razors, of which 400+/- we junk from cell rot or broken/worn out. I still have around 300 blades from these lots that need to be restored and many more that are parts/practice razors.
The blades I’m finding in antique malls are always hit and miss and most days I don’t see anything at all or they are broken and rusted. Believe it or not, I have most of my luck on eBay lately, by using the saved searches to hunt for specific razors. There are sellers you’ll find on eBay that know nothing about straights, but have massive amounts of razors that they list at one time, so often you’ll get lucky and buy two or three nice razors with little cleanup at once. Most of what I do takes time, but once you have a process down they will start showing up and you’ll start getting some nice scores.

For a finishing grit, I’d say something in the 10,000 grit or higher. You can shave off an 8,000 but it won’t be super comfortable. I’d suggest you look at Imperia La Roccia, they are around 10k and I’ve had good results with them. The 6X2 is around $50. You can also look at a Dan’s translucent Arkansas which for a 6X2 is close to the same price as the ILR. The other direction you could go is Coticule, but the quality of the stones is hard to know without working with it, so you could end up with a lower or higher grit, unless it’s been tested by a straight razor user and depending they can be on the higher price range. I like to suggest Jasper hones because of their ease of use and how hard they are, but they are a bit pricier

Thank you for the reply .. I appreciate it a lot.......

 

[Jaro1069]

@Jaro1069 looks like the rest of my message got cut off.

I’d suggest saving for a few months to pick up a nice Jasper stone if you can and watch for sales! Higher grit synthetic stones work too, like the Naniwa 12k, but you’re gonna pay for it, so wait and save for these options. I hope this helps

Thank you for the reply .. I appreciate it a lot.......

 

[Luecke3262]

Thank you for the reply .. I appreciate it a lot.......

Glad to help, anytime

 

[Luecke3262]

I REALLY NEED TO DO BEFOR PHOTOS!
Polished up this, The “Artist,” Levering Razor this morning. It had a little light rust but really only needed a good polishing. I buffed it off for about 15 min on black emory compound to clean up the worst of it and then polished it off with green stainless steel compound for about 10 min until it took a fine shine. The scales are black(rubber) so I buffed them off with the stainless and the turned out like new.