Thread: Hoping it was a good find... Thoughts?

I just won a bid on ebay. To be honest I bid the minimum starting bid, and kinda was hoping someone was going to outbid me last minute. I'm not 100% sure if this was a good buy. It was cheap enough that I could polish 'er up and put on some custom scales for a nice little project. Maybe resell after its all cleaned up a bit. Hoping I could get a few thoughts from some more knowledgeable folks here.
Vintage Razor GEO Wostenholm SON England | eBay

What are your thoughts on this razor? With the conversion to CAD I paid $25 after shipping. I thought even if its something fun to play with to make new scales for it might be an okay find.

I think you will be pleased with your purchase.
My personal preference for restoration would be to just scrub the metal with fine steel wool and chromium oxide and hone it.
The scales would likely clean up and polish as well.
The old English steels are famous for being real easy to hone to a very nice, smooth, sharp edge.

I just did a restoration on a similar razor,it was a friend's grandfather's.Cleaned it up for him and honed it.It's still in the original celluloid scales so I cautioned him to store or display it with the blade open.It took a fine edge so if the blade isn't damaged it should make a fine razor.

With a bit of elbow grease that should clean up nicely. Once honed up should be a good shaver too. I just wish people would post both sides of the blade. Enjoy your new project.

Bob

It will be a good razor to clean up and learn a few things with. Depending on how deep you want to go, you may choose to union it and clean it up sans scales. You could likely get away with leaving them on to. Personally I like to start with a good deep clean with mothers polish and steel wool. There are of course exceptions to that. If it has a nice patina without a bunch of black rust I might just wax it and leave it. That one appears in the poor pictures to need a good cleaning. It also looks like it has no uneven hone wear, so it is likely a good candidate for learning to hone as well. And the price was right and worth gambling on bad pictures. Diamond in the rough?

Originally Posted by RezDog

Diamond in the rough?

I sure hope so!
I am in the middle of my first attempt at some custom scales for the first razor I bought (there will be a new thread coming when I finish and mount them). I am not a huge fan of the look of celluloid scales. Or any plastic type material to be honest. I am a hobbyist woodworker so when I bid on this one it was with the intent on taking off the original scales and getting some nice wood grain on there. Im thinking if I can find a nice small slab of Bubinga or maybe Zebra.

Wood scales are often not that well done. I have seen way too many that are too thick with spacers and not wedges. The wedge is an important functional part of the razor, in order for it to work correct the scales have to be thin enough to flex and move while the blade rotates. If you have not done so yet, it's a good time to look through and read http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...wers-here.html there is a lot there and it covers almost everything. I also do woodwork but really like working with horn and bone. Some people complain about the smell, but that leads me to believe they do not have good dust control. Be careful and go slow. A very prominent restorer says "rush a restore and ruin a razor", sound advice.

That looks like a good project blade! They are great shavers if you can get it up and running