Can it be saved?

[Cuthroatnoob]

Hello all. First time poster here. I have been shaving with a DE razor for over five years and often contemplated shaving with a straight edge for a while now. I happen to be thinking about it on my drive home last week and stopped by one of the larger antique shops here (there are lots of antique shops around here). I saw a few straights and picked this one out. It was only $5 and seemed to be in decent shape, I did notice that the blade was a little wavy but thought that as long as it was sharp, it shouldn't make much of a difference. I figured, why not, it's cheap and maybe I might take up reconditioning them as a hobby. The worst thing that could happen is that I loose $5.

Well, since then, I tried shaving with it thinking, "If it can shave paper, it can shave me". WRONG!! It did nothing but take off the lather. I thought, maybe it's the angle, four more attempts...nothing. I then said, "Oh well, I guess it needs to be sharpened" and shaved with one of my DE's.

After searching the net reguarding straight razor sharpening, I found out two things:

1: The blade looks a LOT shorter (distance from top to blade) than the ones I've seen on the net.
2: The price of sharpening the blade and remaking the edge will be at least $30.

My questions are:

1: Can this razor be saved? It looks like a LOT of material was taken off and it was NOT sharpened properly.
2: If it can be saved, what would be done to add material and what would the total cost be (adding material, remaking the edge and sharpening)?
3: After all is said and done, is it even worth doing? I don't want to put a bunch of money into a razor that's not worth much to begin with (or is it, I have no idea). Am I better off finding another razor that's a higher end model (for the right price of course and paying more attention this time now that I have an idea of what a good one should look like) and sending that one out to be sharpened and just take off the scale and keep it for another project or whatever and use the blade to practice reconditioning? Or should I just say the heck with the old stuff and just get a new one?

Being my first straight razor, I don't want to spend much. I want to get a feel of shaving with one and learn the techniques needed to shave with one before I develop RAD like I somewhat did with DE shaving. My first DE I bought (old Gillette tech) at one of the smaller antique shops here for $10.

The razor is a Robeson Suredge, the number on it is 1697 and on the other side of the blade it says "BARBERS"

I am attaching pictures. Maybe someone here can not only help me with the questions asked but can shed some light on the quality (overall and blade wise) and worth of the razor.

To be honest, it was MUCH easier starting with a DE, you just had to worry about the condition, cracks and if all the pieces were there (regarding used ones).

I thank you all for any answers, comments and suggestions that helps me with all this.