Thread: Found my grandfather's old razor, any thoughts on if it's usable?

Hi everyone,

I've been using a DE safety razor with a brush for a while, and I recently decided to up my game and start straight razor shaving.

I recently found an old razor that belonged to my grandfather, and I thought it would be really cool to start shaving with his old blade. But, I don't know if it's in any kind of condition to be used, and I don't want to pay to get it professionally honed until I know if it's worth it to do so.

The brand is a J.A. Henckels Twin Works. It says "Twins" with some hyrogliphs on one side, and then the company name, Solingen-Germany, and an "A" printed on the other side. From what I've read, this could be a quality blade, but I don't know enough about it yet to know much about quality. I tried to polish it up a bit with some high grit sandpaper, but I didn't do too much because I didn't want to risk messing it up.

I went out and bought a cheap Gold Dollar blade to practice my honing and stroping, but I'd like to use this one to actually shave if possible.

What do you guys think of this blade?

it looks fine to me. Just some cleaning and some honing is all you need. Just make sure the corrosion near the edge is surface.

Thanks. How should I go about cleaning it? Will sandpaper do any damage?

Matt,

Welcome to the forum!!

Here's a link that will help you, and answer many of your questions. http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...wers-here.html

and congrats on having an heirloom from your grandfather!! Those are special!!

Regards,

Howard

Matt, great looking heirloom! I'm pretty envious, first thing I did after taking this up was enquire after my Granddad's razors, but sadly no trace...

Hope the cleanup goes well!