Thread: Gotta 120

My first razor, back in '81, was a Gotta 120 that sadly met with misfortune about 15 years ago and is now gone.
When a client contacted me to have his Gotta assessed and restored I jumped at the chance. When it arrived I was thrilled to see the 6/8" razor was a duplicate of my original.
Someone had attempted a restore before, but had not dismantled it. The blade had been aggressively buffed and the gold etching was gone. The scales had faded in parts - do not know if it was subjected to sunlight or something else.
Anyway, stripping out the blade revealed a lot of patina and some rust around the pivot and in the jimping. The scales were full of old grot and grease/oil.
I began with 1500 grit wet/dry paper and then progressed through micromesh pads up to 8K followed by metal polish. Still some pitting there too deep to moves, but looks good. The scales received the same, but renaissance wax rather than metal polish. Re-pinned with stainless pin and washers.
Was butter knife blunt, but the Naniwa SS 1K put a new bevel on, then worked up through the Naniwa SS to 12K. Final polish on my Yellow Belgian Coticule with a light slurry, a few passes on CrOx then 50 on leather. Just like I remembered .. this thing tree tops hair in a way that makes it seem the top half of my arm hair has leapt off in fright when it sees the razor coming! Can hardly wait for the morning test shave before I send it off home.
Adam

So you dida gotta real nice :<0)