Thread: Merkur Restoration

A friend asked me to restore his late fathers Merkur vintage razor.
The original scales were cracked so they had to go. Shame about the Merkur sign because I really like that symbol .

I had free reign over this job so I designed my own scales to follow the contour of the spine. I used a type of Ebony which is dark brown with black streaks. Thinned by hand to about 3mm ish, I'm guessing

Being a hollow grind I thought I could get away with a copper wedge . The wedge had to be specific, allowing the spine and scales to sit parallel and I used brass pins,collars and internal washers.

The blade had deep pitting and scars on the spine, so I did the spine starting with 240 grit paper. The rest of the blade I started at 400 grit. Finishing the whole this with 3000 grit and then polish.

I had to leave a few pits because the blade was too thin to even get near them..

I have yet to hone it up , I'm still waiting for the oil to fully dry on the scales/ 2 coats of true oil and I will finish it with beeswax.

Lovely blade and I cant wait to test shave it.
Surprising to me is how cheap these blades go for . I think I want one , one day ..
Cheers guys. (sorry the pictures are so dark)

Nice job-Beautiful wood on the scales, brass hardware, and I love that copper wedge (been wanting to try that myself, maybe with some bulls-eye copper collars). I admire your bravery in sanding into deep pitting on that hollow ground. I've heard great things about Tru-Oil; I need to try it sometime.

Nice job, the scales are proportioned nicely.

Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

Nice job-Beautiful wood on the scales, brass hardware, and I love that copper wedge (been wanting to try that myself, maybe with some bulls-eye copper collars). I admire your bravery in sanding into deep pitting on that hollow ground. I've heard great things about Tru-Oil; I need to try it sometime.

The deep sanding was on the spine so it was no problem.
Personally I think the wedge is really important so I always try to make them special or out of the ordinary.
I have lots of different oils but True oil may well be the best ..

Nice job, the grain looks great in those scales with the contrast running lengthwise. Good choice of wedge, steps it up a notch in classiness.

That is one great restoration. It all came together very well and is one classy looking razor

Nice job, I'm sure he will be very happy with the results.

Cheers, I'll post a daylight picture once I put a killer edge on it..

Great work sir, I too have been thinking about using copper. After seeing it I like the look a lot. It could really make the right material pop.

Today I put an edge on this blade and had a shave ..

I started with the Shapton Glass 500 . I think the DMT would have been too much.

No circles , just slight X's with no pressure and gave it a bevel.
Then i killed it and went to the Naniwa 1k. Same thing light strokes and set the bevel.

I then went 5k,10k Chosera, minimal strokes and onto the 16k Shapton Glass with 8 strokes.
Then I finished with the Escher 100 strokes with water only.

The shave was amazing. Smooth and sharp, everything you would want from an edge.

I took a few daylight pictures.
For the last week the blade has sat in my view and I really got to appreciate the shape of the scales .

Onto my next project : W&B 9/8ths
Cheers