Thread: New Member

Hi everyone, I'm Blake. I'm a newbie to straight razor shaving, but I've always wanted to try it. Unfortunately, I went out and bought one before researching, and ended up with an awful Zeepk kit. The only good things to come out of it was a letter opener and a decent brush.

I went to an antique store the other day and found an Oxford-Germania Cutlery, which I've found out is a pretty good razor. It needs to be cleaned and honed, as it appears to not have been used in quite a while. Fortunately, the blade seems to be ok otherwise. Are there any members here that can clean and hone this razor?

Anyway, I look forward to joining this community and getting the best shave of my life!

Take some pictures and post them. That will give us a better idea of what your looking at. If it isn't too bad, then you should be able to get it cleaned up on your own, and then you can send it off to someone for honing. If it needs a bit of work, then there are several guys here who can clean it up for you. But yeah, the pictures will help a lot.

Matt

I have a really bad camera, so these pictures aren't the greatest...sorry

Here're two more of the blade itself.

Thanks again!

Hmmm, not too bad at all. Looks like you might have some pitting on the tange close to the handle, and maybe a little on the blade. Can't tell for sure. I would think that you could clean it up your self. I've done a couple that were worse then that, and they cleaned up pretty well.

You will need to get a metal polish. Most guys here use either Maas or Flitz, though I am sure there are some others that work well too. The maas will also clean up the scales. I have found it at Ace Hardwares and it can also be purchased from Walgreen's from what I have heard. It works well with a dremel and buffing wheels, but you should be ok with hand polishing this one, as it doesn't look to bad. If have a dremel though, it can make the job faster.

Once you have it as clean as you feel you can get it, you will be able to see if there is any remaining rust and pitting. You will need to sand this out. Start off with some 400 grit wet dry sand paper. You may need a few sheet. Sand long the blade. Try night to perpendicular. You may need to a little bit where the blade meet the tang, but for the most part just sand with the blade.

Once you have all the rust remove, and as much of the pitting as you can, move to a 600 grit wet/dry sand paper. This will start polishing it up. Once that has removed the bigger scratches left form the 400, then move up to a 1000 grit and then onto a 1500 if you would like. This will help get that polish back up and you will only see tiny scratches at certain angles in the light. Once you get it all cleaned, you can send it off for honing.

Or you could always just send it off as is and have some one do the whole thing for you. Joe Chandler would be one who does it, and there are a few other guys. I like doing it, but I could see how it could be a lot of trouble to some. Good luck and keep the questions coming.

Matt

Hi, welcome aboard.

The way the light is reflecting off the edge its hard to see any detail so we'll assume there are no chips in the edge. Its a quality razor though it will take some cleaning up. I don't know if I would tackle it as a newbee but as long as you didn't pay much for it you can use it to practice your honing and stropping before you get a really good razor. You can use the products that were mentioned and also Simichrome and cape cod polishing cloths are especially good because they contain abrasives the other preps don't. Keep us informed of your progress.

Normally I'd take my micro grinder and some cleaning and polishing compound to it, but alas, my tools and air compressor are 150 miles away in storage

Honestly, for a razor of this age (from what I can find out), I'd rather just give it to someone else to clean and hone. Well, depending on the cost anyway. I used to be an aircraft mechanic, but now I'm a poorish college student.

No, there are no chips in the edge- I made sure of that before I bought it.

It doesn't take too much polishing with a quality metal polish to get the surface grit and tarnish out of the way. After that it would be easy to see how much pitting there is in the metal. That's just cosmetic though. The real test is how the edge functions and there appears to be no pitting or chips there. A good honing is likely all you'll need to get it working.

X

If pitting is too close to the edge, it may affect how the blade hones up.

Ok, I'll grab some polish and give 'er a go. I just found more time today, and I have to say, it excites me