Greaves resto

Picked up this old Greaves Sheafworks a while back. had a heavy layer of rust, but I had hoped it would be a reasonable clean up job. Unfortunately, the depth of the pitting along the center of the blade (where it touched the scales) was way to deep to hope to clean out.

Across the road and back up the hill from me is an 80 year old retired colonel, and I was asked by his family if I had a razor they could give him for Christmas, but something that I had a hand in.

So, this became a project for Turkey day while you were all watching football. This is the pinnacle of scale on restorations. Mostly because I am a complete failure at re-pinning!

Blade was ground freehand, on a slow speed 7.5 inch wheel. It had been a near flat sided wedge (of swiss cheese) when I started, and it is now a near wedge/shallow hollow grind. cracks in the horn were filled with CA glue, then soaked in neatsfoot overnight, and hand rubbed to a high shine. Its way nicer than it looks in the photo.

While there are plenty of guys, who could have done this better, I'm still pretty pleased with myself.
The Colonel will get a nice shave if he opts to use it. Its turned out to be a nice shaver, as well as no longer looking like something dug up behind the outhouse.

Attachment 185895Attachment 185896

Here is a couple of better pictures. I wish I had taken more of the terrible condition it was when I started. That one is pretty hard to see how bad it truly was. Attachment 186750Attachment 186751

Good go, Steve! You had guts enough to take it to a stone and regrind the thing like it should be done. Like they did back in the day. It looks to have turned out great! :tu

I'm impressed! All I did on Turkey day was eat and drink and watch football, then drink some more! Lets just say it is probably a good thing I didn't go near any power tools that day. Great job on a razor for what sounds like a great guy!

Wow ,super save and well done Sir! The Colonel should be pleased .

Thanks for the praise guys. Putting the old blades to stone is kind of nerve wracking. Always afraid I will screw it up. And with limited sizes of grindstones to work with, I pick and choose what blades I do. What I need to do, is get a larger grind stone, and put all my razors in size order. As the wheel gets smaller, so will the blades! :idea:

Now... off to a cup of 20 year old coffee. (which STILL tastes better than Starbucks!)

Very well done !!

Very nicely done! The colonel has a new razor and you have the self satisfaction of restoring a razor that can now be used for a few more generations and passing it on to the colonel. Great stuff!