Thread: Regrinding Blues

IMHO, the central reason the old Barber's razors were huge was so they could be reground when the spine wear got excessive. Regrinding was a fact of life in the heyday of the straight.

As for how you can tell, that's hard to pass on easily.

There's a whole constellation of things to look for, and some of it is just knowing what any given style of blade looked like.

There's also the fact that the grinding wheel was used in a lot of different ways over time. Initially, it was mostly to clean off rust and remove the hone-wear race track down the blade. Later it was used to turn old wedges into more modern hollows.

In general though, get a powerful magnifying glass and look at the blade. Really examine it. You're looking for regular scratches that go from spine to edge. If it's a shoulderless grind, check all along it to see if the character of the grind marks changes. Some razors were given a crocus polish (mirror), others a glaze, which has visible scratch marks that look almost indistinguishable from after-market grinding.

It's also worth noting that at least some of the old Sheffield companies would take back their razors and regrind them for a small fee and the return postage, and I'd bet money you'd be hard pressed to ever tell the difference between that and an original finish.

The last little bit of uncertainty is that these were hand-made items, made by people who often worked three jobs to make sure their families didn't starve. They were polished by children. They were almost never perfect out of the factory.