Thread: 1st razor restoration.

This is my first attempt at a razor restore. I bought it off ebay for £9.30 including PNP which is about $15. I think I got lucky with the razor. The handle was broken and beyond saving so I rehandled it in oak. It still needs honing but I'm pretty pleased overall. Any comments good or bad will be welcome

Before






After

Looks good. I recently finished my first 2 restorations. It is a pretty enjoyable hobby. What finish did you use on the wood?

Originally Posted by UAcowboy

Looks good. I recently finished my first 2 restorations. It is a pretty enjoyable hobby. What finish did you use on the wood?

I soaked the scales in Danish oil for a couple of days, the insides I gave the superglue treatment for a bit of added water proof ing in there. The outsides then got a light sanding with some 6k sandpaper and then finished with a polish I made with 40% carnauba wax 60% pure bees wax, its something I've used on knife handles in the past and gives a nice shine, not sure how it will stand up to the shaving environment though

The first one is always a confidence builder. Looks like you did pretty good. From the pics you might want to do a little more polishing but overall nice job.

Originally Posted by 10Pups

The first one is always a confidence builder. Looks like you did pretty good. From the pics you might want to do a little more polishing but overall nice job.

It does look a bit dull on those for some reason, this is a better one of the blade

Funny, I was going to post exactly what 10Pups did and then I saw your last post with the photo and had to delete my post! Good work, it looks seriously nice! What wood did you use?

Originally Posted by Christel

Funny, I was going to post exactly what 10Pups did and then I saw your last post with the photo and had to delete my post! Good work, it looks seriously nice! What wood did you use?

Thank you

The wood is just light oak from a staircase spindle ! With it been my first one I didn't want to use any of my exotic woods (I wish I'd actually used some snake wood now), I've never pinned anything before so I was woried about messing it up at that stage. In the past when I've done knife scales i've always used Corby bolts but the pinning went well enough, probably could look a bit neater but its secure.

I'm going to use a nicer bit of wood for the next one, a 6/8 Johnson razor which looks like its not seen much action but until its cleaned up I can't tell if its for the bin or a user, I took a gamble on eBay as it was only 99p ($1.60), the postage cost more at £2.80 lol. I'm thinking a nice bit of burl of some kind if I have any long enough for razor scales, all the wood I bought was intended for knife scales and razor scales are surprisingly long so I'm not sure how much I have that will be suitable. I can see me having to buy some more nice woods that are longer

There's a mega bargain going on for light horn if you fancy giving that a go - the ebay seller 'robsbits' is selling a load of them off for very little cost. Might be worth taking a look at it, since they ship from the UK and you'll get cheap postage.

I know what you mean about the pinning - but yours certainly looks fine in the photos. Give the heads a gentle rub with a file and then polish with micromesh - it makes even shoddy pinning jobs look way nicer.

Originally Posted by Christel

There's a mega bargain going on for light horn if you fancy giving that a go - the ebay seller 'robsbits' is selling a load of them off for very little cost. Might be worth taking a look at it, since they ship from the UK and you'll get cheap postage.

I know what you mean about the pinning - but yours certainly looks fine in the photos. Give the heads a gentle rub with a file and then polish with micromesh - it makes even shoddy pinning jobs look way nicer.

Thank you I'll take a look, never worked with horn but I do like the look. I work on the theory just give it a go and see what happens, the worst that can happen is you stuff it up and you have lost a bit of time and maybe a few quid, but if you never try something new I think you loose out more !

Great tip on the pinning

It's a piece of cake shaping horn - coarse sandpaper will shape it fairly quickly and it will polish up nicely with micromesh (Or Wet&Dry paper)
I bought ten slabs of the light horn today, for £1.95 (Plus P&P) per (Quite large) blank, it seemed rude not to make the most of it.