Thread: Joseph Elliot restore

I've restored quite a few Joseph Elliot razors but never found one to keep until this one. I think it is an earlier blade. 13/16 at the toe tapering to 6/8 at the heal and 3 1/4 inches in length. Near wedge with a nice thin bevel. Nothing fancy about it really but I like the toe extending past the grob with the deep barbers notch and the long tapering blade. The scales are the typical dyed horn with an intact escutcheon plate. I frequently find these cracked and bent. I think because of shrinkage in the horn. The inside of the scales at the wedge end and pivot end have deep file marks. Even the lead wedge had deep file marks from fitting. I left them and just cleaned off the crud. You can see the marks through the translucent scales. The scales were pretty dried out and soaking them in neatsfoot oil seemed to help a lot. Austin Kennedy sent me a sample of his new small collars and this gave me a chance to try them out. The blade originally had a bright crocus type finish. This is my attempt at reproducing it.

Sadly I lost some of the color in the scales. There were many deep scratches and some surface delamination I cleaned up but at a cost. I didn't realize how much until I compared the before and after pictures. Seems I always have some regret when doing a restore. I'm going to have to experiment with dying and see what I can come up with.

great work

I personally like the "after" scales better. Beautiful work.

In a post some time ago, Neil had stated that in order for the horn to be effectively die the horn needed to be heated. It looks like Austin Kennedy is the man to go to for collars. I have used his as well and think they are all that. It is very tough to restore dyed scales and keep all the color. The blade was a prime candidate and it looks good as new. It's nice to get one that you are certain is a keeper.

Very well done.
I bet it's a great shaver.
Thanks for posting.

You should definitely try to dye them! It's easy, fun, and extremely effective!

I've got a whole write-up here (third post in). You don't need to heat them or do anything special. Just find some permanent hair dye -- very dark brown, but not black, works best for the mockshell look. Mix it up, paint it on, clean it off. BANG! You've got dyed scales.