Thread: Kropp (England/Hamburg) and Hacomer (Solingen) in stained horn

Not too long ago I was here, complimenting someone on a wonderfully restored horn-scaled razor. I said something along the lines of "I must get myself some nice horn scales"... and then I got to thinking about restoring some really knackered old ones that I had lying around.

I have been waiting to scale both of these razors, and decided to put each into polished stained horn - at least just to see how they turned out. Here they are:

KROPP (Made in England, Ground in Hamburg)
Poor condition, lots of rust, home-scaled by someone using a ruler (actually quite a cool idea, but poor execution).




The main problem with the horn scales that I recycled was the pivot end - the pins had been so roughly replaced and removed time and time again that the holes were massive. So I simply cut that end off! Re-rounded the end, polished it up, and hey presto, a wonderful fit for this shorter KROPP blade:





HACOMER (Solingen) - any information on this maker/marking is welcomed!
This blade was also in a very bad way, and I wouldn't have bothered with it, except that it came with a GOTTA 120 blade. It is also a very nice large blade (I believe 6/8, and longer than many of my other blades in length). The "HACOMER" marking was actually more visible when it was rusted - perhaps it was a gold mark, which had rusted, but either way there was no way of saving it. Next to "HACOMER" appeared a shield of some kind, with possibly two symbols within it. I'd guess a helmet or a crown, but that would just be a guess. On the other side of that, possibly another word, but not possible to read.





The horn scales were in such horrendous shape that I almost threw them out some time ago (thank goodness for keeping everything). Instead, I used a 'soft' epoxy to fill the holes and the worst of the scars, and when dry, sanded and polished them up. You can still see where the epoxy has been used (see the lighter horn around the pins especially), but I'm very pleased with the overall result achieved with scales that were almost ready for the bin! And as for the blade, it is glorious!






Can't wait to see whether these can now be taken to shave ready...

Very nice saves. The idea of using a ruler for scales is interesting. I might have to find a very old yard stick and try it out.

Great restores, well done

Nice save on both of those. Can I ask what you used to polish up the scales?

Very nice restore. great razors Kropp's
Good job

Nice restorations. Hope they shave as well as they look.

Originally Posted by MattCB

Nice save on both of those. Can I ask what you used to polish up the scales?

Thank you everyone for your positive comments. My process usually goes like this: sand to 1200grit, soak horn in an antique furniture oil overnight (the oil is mostly linseed oil and leaves a lovely deep rich shine to any wood or horn), then polish up with the maas or autoglym polish (I've tried with a dremel but find that a hand polish with a soft cloth actually gives a better shine). Most stained horn seems to come up beautifully once more!

Well done!!

Ray