Thread: Genco Pura

Na, if you oil the pivot, it might get too loose! Toothpaste? That works wonders in cleaning and polishing.

Originally Posted by 1oldDago

Old toothbrush, ✓
Simple Green, ✘
Polish, ✘
Hone, ✘

Hmmm, I do have some "Purple" cleaner. Think that might work if I dilute it enough?
No Flitz, Simichrome or Mothers, but I may have some brass & chrome polish hiding somewhere.
Finally, no hones. Yet. Hell, my strop is a cardboard & newspaper covered 2x4

Can you tell --- I really have no idea what I'm doing. But it sure is fun doing it. So I guess I will try to find whatever polish I have here, dilute the dog-snot out some purple (it's pretty harsh), clean & polish the best I can & then start on my "strop" & just see where I end up.
Should I try to get a drop of oil into the pivot area do you think??

You'll be okay. You can eventually get those things you need. Toothpaste is a mild abrasive, it may or may not clean it up some but the polish you referred to might do. Since you are new & don't have a hone, do a search & see if there is a member near you that could be of some help to you. You can search here:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/memberlist.php?do=search

The more of this you do, the better you will get & there isn't anything better than a shave with a straight razor that's been honed & stropped correctly. If you have an old leather belt, you can use it for a strop for now.
Good luck my friend.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Na, if you oil the pivot, it might get too loose! Toothpaste? That works wonders in cleaning and polishing.

That's some funny s&^%... that is exactlywhat I ended up using! Worked like a charm.

Originally Posted by engine46

You'll be okay. You can eventually get those things you need. Toothpaste is a mild abrasive, it may or may not clean it up some but the polish you referred to might do. Since you are new & don't have a hone, do a search & see if there is a member near you that could be of some help to you. You can search here:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/memberlist.php?do=search

The more of this you do, the better you will get & there isn't anything better than a shave with a straight razor that's been honed & stropped correctly. If you have an old leather belt, you can use it for a strop for now.
Good luck my friend.

I live in B.F.E., literally --- it's Mayberry here. The closest member I found is a cpl hours away. But who knows?! I do want to learn to do it all by myself. Before I semi-retired the $ wouldn't have been a problem. But... ya'll know how it is. I use my belt on my knives & thought about it on the razors. But... it's a really ratty, beat-up, twisted & misfigured leather belt. So, thats why I opted to go w/ the newspaper strop. After I "toothpasted" the beJesus out of it, rinsed it & wiped it I tried it on a couple whiskers I missed this morning. Good, but a long way from great. I did notice though that the scales aren't as perfect as I initially thought. It centers okay when it wants to. Sometimes not so much. Not sure what I'll do about that part yet. But next up is some time on my "strop" and then some pics of it all cleaned up.

OOPS.
Thought I had a good idea.
Went & found an old benchtop honing stone in the garage.
Even though it's for knives(probably a bit coarse) I figured
I'll just touch it up since the edge is kind of fudges anyway.[Used my jewelers loupe - yuck.]
Maybe I put too much pressure on the handle/scale. Maybe it was already cracked or broke.
I was warned about the scales earlier.
Besides the edge being rough, I now have a broken scale.
So, I guess it will be a full restore after all.
Have any of you seen anyone put the pretty bolsters onto replacement scales??
I really don't want to give up the bolsters. I love em.
Thoughts?

I was pretty tickled to find this razor in such good condition. I also cannot get over the thrashed condition of the horn (?) scales. The wedge is some material that has become powdery over the years. The external pivot washers are steel and appear to be homemade, but without pride in craftsmanship. Yikes.

Ignore the scales and enjoy the razor!

Just finished restoring this blade yesterday, honed her up last night. Will test shave soon.
Seneca Chief.

Here's one that's not on the list that I've been trying to pin down information on and find another. I'm a huge fan of Genco and this has been my favorite. Only wish I had the info to find another.

One of my recent acquisitions for your approval.

There are a few that aren't on the list but the OP did pretty good naming the ones he did.