Restore/buying old razors Newb Questions

[Mike257]

ok in the short time I have been straight razor shaving I have taken a liking to frambacks and big choppers. I bought a wade Butcher 6/8 frame back off ebay for $30, Now Im looking at a 8/8 chopper.

Let me get to the point here, Im noticing that the frame part or I guess the spine seems to look flat on a lot of these razors, are they suppose to be like that or is that wear from honing. If it's wear would I round it out if I were to restore one. I bought one that the scales are shot and Im thinking of blinging one up with high polish blade and some exotic wood scales. They have no pitting on them and one Im going to leave orignal ,maybe just clean up the scales if possible without taking the razor apart.

[Mike257]

Guys can you look at this, I can get it for $25. I wanto to have someone make some fancy exotic scales and polish the blade , is this worth the money. Is the flatarea on the top from honing or is that normal?

Vintage Wade & Butcher Sheffield Straight Razor - eBay (item 250380613301 end time Mar-05-09 17:32:03 PST)

[nun2sharp]

Looks like a lot of hone wear to me. I would suggest you keep shopping until you find something that leaves you with no doubts.

[Mike257]

ok so that flat area is suppose to be rounded?

[nun2sharp]

yep, sure is. come on back over and you can take another look at mine and get a good idea of what to look for.

[Mike257]

What do you think of this one

[cannonfodder]

No, it will be flat on the side but not that flat. It has has been honed a lot. Even with that hone ware I bet the price shoots up in the closing day.

[Pete_S]

Maybe I'm threadjacking here a bit, but even with that amount of hone wear, that Ebay razor still has a useful life of a few years, doesn't it? At what point should you avoid a razor completely b/c of hone wear? I looked around a bit (including the wiki), but didn't really see anything about this specifically, except the general notion that hone wear decreases value b/c the razor has less life in it (has been well used) and might be harder to hone.

[Mike257]

Pete, If I just wanted an old razor then that hone wear wouldnt bother me one bit, especially for only $25. The problem is that I wanted a pristine old razor for everyday use and to add to a large collection that I see happening in the near future. I didnt realize that pristine razors would run upwards of $200 or possibly more. I also started out with the idea that I wanted something with a blade I could polish up and rescale and would look flawless, and that is where razors with hone wear, pitting , ect became a problem. There are so many razors for sale on ebay and even here in the classifieds that one could afford to be choosy, but as far as that one for $25 goes I would jump on it if I were on a tight bujet , I love the look of it and still may buy it if I keep looking at it.