Thread: Worth restoring?

I just scored a couple of "Shefield" razors at a local antique show. One is a Wade and Butcher and the other just says "Sheffield" on the tang" and "The Celebrated For Barber's Use" on the blade itself. The scales on the W&B are cracked, but the blade doesn't look too terrible to my painfully untrained eye. The other is just the opposite with pretty cool scales, but with a blade that's pretty rough. Seems like I got may have got one complete razor between the two of them.

What do you guys think.... worth restoring or did I just flush some cash down the toilet?

I am a newb and have not yet restored anything, but going by what I have seen others here do with worse razors, I don't see any reason why both of those razors could not be restored with little difficulty. Nice razors I like the second one that French/Irish point and that shoulder less blade are sexy.

Those should both work out nicely. I don't see any rust on the edge so they should sand out ok and then polished up nicely.
Both are nice looking. Good luck with them.

You'r better half probably doesn't want you to get to involved in these razors, so send them to me and ill dispose of them for you, free of charge!! That way you have time to take her to Romeo and Juliet, or something!

I kid, I kid!! Both look like they can be restored into awesome razors!! If those were mine, Id save everything but the pins. unpin both, then start by getting rid of all the rust. The first one looks as though it may just need some metal polish. The second looks like sanding may be required to remove the rust. Once you've got them shiny and looking new, Pin them back up and have them honed. I bet both will be great shavers!!

If your confidence in restoring is low, maybe send them out to be completely renovated by someone who can have them looking like the day they left the factory. Either way I think both look like very good razors.

They look good from what I can see. If the W&B is only cracked at the wedge, not broken loose, I wouldn't even bother with the expense of rescaling. I would take some 0000 steel wool with a bit of oil to the red rust, semichrome or some such metal polish on q-tips and paper towels and call it good. You would need to have them pro honed though. Don't sink too much into any of this until you are sure it is something you will stick with.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

They look good from what I can see. If the W&B is only cracked at the wedge, not broken loose, I wouldn't even bother with the expense of rescaling. I would take some 0000 steel wool with a bit of oil to the red rust, semichrome or some such metal polish on q-tips and paper towels and call it good. You would need to have them pro honed though. Don't sink too much into any of this until you are sure it is something you will stick with.

+1 on this. Use some hard epoxy resin to set the scales. Put it inside and outside of the scales, using some vibrations to get it into the crack. When this is set you can sand it smooth and buff it to a real good shine. This razor's scales were shattered into 5 pieces
In my opinion almost everything is worth restoring.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

.... Don't sink too much into any of this until you are sure it is something you will stick with.

Too late Jimmy RAD has set in already....

A painful but not terribly expensive lesson...

I tried polishing the W&B with some metal polish. It was looking real good too, when I noticed a hairline crack in the blade that the schmutz was hiding.

See photo below:



Oh well...maybe the scales might be worth saving after some epoxy and cleaning.

Hopefully I'll have better luck with the other one.

That's too bad.

Sorry.I really could not see that in the original pictures you posted. Amazing what a little gunk hides...