Thread: Restoring a Hugo Köller.

No clue as to much about this blade. Bought it off a gentleman in the city I live in. Said it was his grandfathers bought by his parents as a going away gift when he came over to Canada from the Ukraine and it's been passed down to father and son till him. He doesn't straight shave and doesn't have anything to do with it so he parted it to me for $40. It's definitely seen some better days. My kitchen knives are easily twice as sharp as this thing. You know the thumb pad test? You could have run your thumb down the length of the blade directly and not been cut.

I currently only have some shoddy web cam pictures so they'll have to do till I get back to civilization and get my hands on a digi cam.

Without anymore stalling here are some barely passable before and after pics of putting an edge back on.
Before:



After a good walloping on the Norton 4K/8K.


Gave it a strop and it's maybe just a hair duller than my Wade and Butcher. Haven't shaved with it yet (Which will be the definitive test), but I'm going to take it home when I'm done out in the field and give it a sanding down to give it some of it's old luster back. But I think I'll leave the pitting. This one has some history behind it and I think the razor should reflect that.

Not sure if you can see in the picture but the engraving says 223 (Little eagle picture holding 2 straight razors in it's claws) followed by Hugo Köller, and underneath all that it just says Solingen. I'm guessing it it's like the Wade/Butcher and it doesn't say the country of origin it's pre 1890's? I couldn't find anything on the Wiki link so I'm at a loss there.

BTW - The Yellow plastic scales are barely holding the razor in place and the blade catches the side of them each time unless the utmost care is taken putting them back. So I'm also thinking new scales are in order as well. I might try my hand at making them from scratch. Prepare to see carnage or pure blind luck!