Thread: [B]Most worn out razors[/B]

Well this is a thread about razors honed to death.
When I purchase razors for restauration I mostly buy a batch of razors – which are often in very different conditions. From NOS to worn out to „not alive any more“.
I always asked myself what to do with straights of the last category. Use the scales if they are ok and throw away the razor? But most of the time I can't bring myself to do that, especially if the razor is a well known brand or seldom. In most cases they went into a box, and I look at them whenever I add a new candidates to the box.
But all of these razor have their own special beauty. And they had a hard and full live, thousands of shaves, thousands of honing sessions.
Of course the honing had been done wrong in most cases with unequal wear. But somehow also these are something special.
So here is the show of the old ugly ducklings:



A lot of razors that came from the japanese vintage razor market are especially honed out towards the toe. So the width oft he razors finally gets maybe half a the tip compared tot he nearly original width at the stabilizer.




On some, somebody tried a regrind………




By the way – when I took the photograph and looked at the tormented natures, I realized that I never really tried to hone them and shave with them. Had too much better alternatives.
Ok some of them have a frown honing line - like that Henckels.



Look more like scythes. Would be hard to shave with that.
But others have a (nearly) straight edge and are still sharp enough, the edge without cracks and nicks.



I think I will try this Bismark for shaving. Was a beauty when it once born, full hollow bellied grind, worked spine, nice scales. Now the honing lines is going from the nearly original edge near the stabilizer alltrough the part of the blade that once formed the (perfect) belly into the beginnig of the hollow on the toe. Only a very slight frown in the blade.
Don’t think I need to use tape to preserve the spine in this case….



Would be a pleasure to shave with it (hopefully!).

I will report….

Regards Peter

The results of the use of a convex hone...eh.!

Must be all from the same guy, probably a barber. That's how most look like, that I've picked up from most barbers.

Thank goodness Peter is an honourable and honest fellow.

They would be declared “vintage” by some eBay sellers and posted for a crazy price.

I have a few too, most of mine I gave to Tom and Victor. Tom makes artistic wind chimes and Victor was going to try to recycle the steel.

You mean like these Mike?

Shame too because the one on the right is a Freddy FBU. Some barber got his money's worth out of that one.

Originally Posted by RezDog

I have a few too, most of mine I gave to Tom and Victor. Tom makes artistic wind chimes and Victor was going to try to recycle the steel.

For anyone looking for recycling/reuse ideas for razors well beyond rescue, a canister of old razors with 1084 or 1095 powder can make for a really nice pattern welded billet to turn into new razors or other blades. Forge welding together the spines and tails of old razors *can* be done but it is insanely tricky. I'm 1 for 4 on that approach... Much more reliable return with a canister.

Anyway, I'm afraid I can't find a picture, but I once bought a lot of razors on ebay. It was one of those estate sale kind of things where the seller knows nothing, won't send any more photos etc. It was so cheap I took a chance and got a few decent blades from it, but was excited about the possibility of one: it looked to be a big W&B FBU. The scales looked to be in great shape, so I got my hopes up. When it arrived, it was essentially a spine. I think the blade width was even with the tang at one end, and maybe 1/8" at the toe. So, essentially a mid-19th-century Sheffield toothpick. In the end I was able to salvage the washers, wedge, and scales, and the spine and tang are now part of my sgian dubh, so it worked out OK in the end.

It really is amazing what people will do to good blades.

Well, it took me some time for honing the above shown Bismarck, but got it finally shave ready. And what can I say - the shave was fantastic. Really! Had to adapt my shaving technique a little, but all in all a pleasure to use that I didn't expect.
So my statement is: Nearly nothing can destroy a real good blade. Not even a bad honer.
Good steel, well hardened is normal for old blades. But also the grind is great. Even though the edge goes through nearly all parts and different thickness of the razor, the honing line gets straight, without nicks, the razor was perfectly ground from stabilizer to the tip. No waves or unregularities that would have lead to an uneven honing line or more worse, unhoned thicker parts in the edge.
Honed a lot of the new grind razors from companies today, that looked perfect, but the grind is awful and wavy and you don't get the edge equally sharp over the whole length without regrinding the lower part towards the bevel.
So gentleman, if the look of a razor isn't everything to you, you just want a good shave - safe money and buy one of the old messed up ugly dugglings for a dollar and hone them right.

Regards Peter