First post, impulse buy C.J. Johnson "Our Best"

Hello folks, First post here.

So, I made an impulse buy today. Picked up a "C.A. Johnson" razor and Illinois razor strop # 835 for $35 today. I don't know anything about straight razors, so this is foreign territory to me. Did I win or lose on this?
The blade has got some pitting; scales are in decent shape with minor nicks and cracking, but still whole. The blade is NOT sharp, needs a hone to be shave ready, if it'll ever be able to again. The tang is stamped with "C.J. Johnson Inc. New Haven, Conn. M.I. Germany" on one side and "Our Best" on the other side.

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Anyone care to chime in on this? I'm currently using a Gold Dollar Straight, that gets me buy very well. I got this deal because I lost my strop in a move. Thanks!

Correction, it is stamped with "C. A. Johnson"

I'm a little concerned with the corrosion near the edge some better pictures would make for a more accurate assessment.

Better?

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Anyone know the history on this company? Internet searches have yielded very little.

for the most part there are not a lot of poor quality vintage razors that don't hit the trash bin. What is left is the good ones. That one has some corrosion near the edge. It will need a bevel to be able to tell for sure if it worth cleaning up. Basically the bevel set is to see if there is enough good steel underneath to support a shaving edge, without it there is no point in doing any other restoration work.

Hi and welcome. Is the corrosion at the edge superficial or is it deeper pitted rust. If deeper it will all need removing which will reduce the blade a bit. If superficial then cleaning it up and honing might see you shaving without any great loss of metal. It all depends on the edge and you won't know until the excess rust is taken off snd you check what the metal underneath is like. Hope it works out ok and if you need advice just ask all the folks here are helpful

I learned the hard way to put a razor to the hones first to see if it will take an edge before spending hours on restoring it to find out all you have is a letter opener that you spent far to much time on. If you can't save the blade keep the scales for something later and if for some reason you can save the scales save the bolsters.

Thanks for the advice. From what I can see, the rust is mostly superficial; but I'm far from an expert. I've don't lots of knife making/ resto work, but as I've previously said I know little to nothing about straight razors. I shave with one about once a week, but that's about it. I've got a few hones, the finest is 10k. Should I start there, or start with a course grit and work up? Or, should I just sent it out to see what a pro can do?

The question still remains; even if this thing is just a letter opener, at $35 (for a useable strop and useless razor) did I score, or should I kick myself?

Hi and welcome to the forum. You really won't know for sure if the corrosion on and near the edge is superficial or not until you have been able to set a good bevel. That part of the blade is terribly thin so the corrosion does not have to be terribly deep in order to have to remove a fair amount of metal to get to some solid steel.

If you have a 1K hone, 3K will do too but take longer, and are comfortable trying to set a bevel, it might be a good idea to try it and see what you have got. There are some good vids on honing a straight if you have not done it before. As always the option to send it out is there too.

It is against forum rules to do evaluations so all I'll say is that I might just have taken a chance on that razor and strop too. Hope you are successful in putting her back into service.

Bob

If you have done knife making and restores then try cleaning it up a bit and see what is happening at the edge.

Hi & welcome to SRP. The razor you bought depends if you can set a bevel like the others said. If not, you got a letter opener. If you have honing experience then go here:
Bevel-setting in theory and practice - Straight Razor Place Library
See if you can accomplish this but if you don't have experience, send it out & an assessment can be made as to whether it is worth trying to save. Even if it can be saved, you will lose some metal. Don't give up though & ask questions & for help. Cudarunner has a couple of razors at the moment that are shave ready that he'll sell you & they are shave ready. If interested, find him here:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/members/cudarunner.html

Hi & welcome to SRP. I agree with all the above comments. If you have any experience honing then you could go here:
Bevel-setting in theory and practice - Straight Razor Place Library
Also Cudarunner has a couple of shave ready razors for sale from what I understand. You might consider that. You can find him here:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/members/cudarunner.html
He does excellent work & will help a beginner out as he has helped many people in the past on different issues.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by engine46

I agree with all the above comments.

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Even the one directly above?

Hi & welcome to SRP. You will find a wealth of knowledge on here, especially in the Library. You mainly need to know how to strop right now if you don't know yet. If you don't know how to hone yet, you may want to send one out to be professionally honed. Do you have a brush, a shaving mug & shaving soap? You will need those as well. If you plan on buying a new straight, buy one from Straight Razor Designs. Lynn, the owner & founder of this forum is also part owner of SRD & if you buy the straight razor kit with a strop, he will hone the razor to make sure it is shave ready, something that other vendors claim to do but don't. If you just buy a straight razor He might hone it as well but I know for sure when he sells the kits, he hones the razors. Lynn is a fantastic guy & will help you out if you have any questions but if you ask questions on here, there are many knowledgable members who will be more than happy to answer them for you so feel free to ask anything or comment on anything.
Good luck & have fun on here!

Thanks for all the warm welcomes. I went ahead and did a preliminary hone at 3k and the edge and bevel look really good. It cleaned up very nicely. Unfortunately, I can't finish up the hone because I just moved and all my stuff is packed up. I'll post pictures when I get a chance.

Again, thanks for all the warm welcomes.

I'm glad it was clarified that you were doing the honing are restoration on your own. If that were not the case and you intended to have someone else do it, I'd say it was a miss for you since the cost of honing and restoration might make the project more expensive than its worth.