Thread: The Story of Junior's Henkels #50

This is the story of Junior, and his Granddad's razor.

Junior is my barber, and has been for over five years. Junior and his other four barber buddies in the shop all enjoy straight razor shaving their customers, as you can see by this picture:



Junior does not shave HIMSELF with a straight, only his customers. He claims shaving others is much easier than shaving oneself. He may change his mind and give it a shot after this!

Anyways, one day, when I told Junior that I enjoy shaving with straights, he pulled out this old, stained, sad piece of work from a box in the back of his bottom cabinet:



Here's the story of the razor. It's said that Junior's GREAT grandfather went up to Alaska during the gold rush, with two of his buddies. One was the fellow who owned the giant Mariott hotel in downtown Indianapolis, and the other was the grandfather of Tony George, the owner of Indianapolis Raceway Park. Apparently they were successful in the gold rush??

Anyways, as the story goes, while in Alaska, the Mariott guy bought Junior's Granddad a Henkel's #50 straight razor, in transparent ox horn. Granddad of course used the heck out of it, and eventually it got passed down to Junior (you know, because he's a barber).

During that time, the scales managed to crack about 80% of the way through at the pin:



So, knowing what I know now, I offered to have it "fixed up" for him at my own expense. Off it goes to the master of all masters, Maximilian in Las Vegas!!

Max took the razor apart, polished and honed the blade, cleaned up and epoxy'd the cracked scales, and re-peened the whole thing. Unfortunately, I don't have a good close up of the "new" razor!

Meanwhile, while Max was hard at work, I had another idea. I decided to make Junior a box to display the razor in, for his shop. This turned out to be a LOT harder than I originally thought! First, I found two pieces of 8' molding - one in an "L" shape, and one 1/4" x 1/2" x 8' "screen mold". My plan was to glue the screen mold to the "L" mold in such a way that a groove would be formed to hold a colorless/clear front panel.

I chose a piece of polycarbonate Lexan plastic for the front, instead of glass - I'm hoping Junior can pass this box down to his own grandkids, so I wanted something unbreakable!

So then I sanded, cut, stained and sealed the pieces of molding (with help from a neighbor and his miter saw), and used some solid pine board for the back of the box. Here is a picture of the work in progress:



It was a giant mess, and it took DAYS AND DAYS. Stain the wood, wait 24 hours. Stain the wood a second coat, wait another 24 hours. Seal the wood, wait 24 hours... you get the idea. Wait for the glue to set, etc. etc.

I have never made ANYTHING like this before. I was quite proud of myself.

So eventually comes the day when Max returns the razor to me, coincidentally the same day I finally finish the box.

And here it is, in all it's boxy glory, mounted on the wall at the barber shop. You can see I also used a couple of screw-hooks under the razor to include the box that Junior was keeping the razor in:



Finally, after all the work is done, the most satisfying photo of them all. Junior, in his shop, with his "new" Granddad's Henkel's #50 proudly displayed on the wall for all to see and enjoy.



Thanks, Max!

Enjoy, Junior!!

Great story! Thanks for sharing. Is there anything on the blade to stop it from tarnishing? I don't know if it will be a problem, just wondering.....

Wow what a GREAT story, well done with all the pictures.

that's so cool!

Great Story!! And very generous of you as well.

Great story. Thanks for sharing. And if you weren't Junior's favourite client, before, I bet you are now.

very generous of yah and great job on the SR save Max, looks like free haircuts for awhile

These are some of the stories that make straight shaving so great and rewarding.

Thx for sharing and may Junior keep that smile on his face for a very long time.

P.S.: the little padlock is a nice touch :-)

Sniff!Sniffle!! What a great story! Way to go!

Greg, you are the MAN. For REAL.

Way to go, buddy!