Thread: To polish or not to polish?

Hey All!

I recently acquired a beautiful C V Heljestrand Eskilstuna No. 2 its a very pretty little and I mean little razor at just over 4/8. Im wondering what the opinions are regarding polishing up a razor like this or other razors with a similar patina.

Id like to separate the discussion into a few categories:
A. collector piece for maximum collectorness
B. collector piece meant for use
C. Solely to ge the best shave and personal use, not meant for resale at all


thanks in advance!!

now for some razor porn:

Personally I would go with option C. Get it shave ready and leave the rest as is.

It's a good looking razor so I would not want to mess with that and congrats on the find.

I agree, option 'C'. The razor is not bad. Give it a good hone and enjoy. Those Swedish razors shave great.

I would try to clean it up as much as possible without much sanding, as the no. 2 are hollow ground razors.

This is a common model by a common manufacturer, not what I'd call a collector's item. Good shavers nonetheless.

Best regards,

Pieter

Aloha!

I never sell any of my razors - or at least I have not sold any YET - so to me it's all about restoration for shaving not for showcasing. I have many that are shave ready with blades that are not mirrors. Patina on the blade IMO only adds to my anjoyment of the razor. I may lightly go over them to get off the grunge, but I don't wet sand or openly polish or buff most of them. Full disclosure, yes, I have buffed and shined and polished some, usually when I am putting on new scales and doing a full restoration.

But to each their own. Do whatever you want and enjoy that razor any way you like. After all, it's yours!

Congrats!

-Zip

I'd personally scrape all that rust and tarnish down to clean steel, very carefully.

The value of this razor is not in how much of the old rust/patina it retains, but in the final state of the razor, should you choose to remove that patina. In other words, clean it properly, maintain its original look, grind, lines, with minimal alteration, and you will have a nice razor, good for both shaving and keeping in a collection.

If you are concerned about resale/collectors value, I'd go about cleaning this very carefully, and perhaps even consider sending it out to a pro.

If it were my razor.... I would personally never do it, not even for an MK, not this one. If it were a larger razor, then maybe I'd consider it (nah, that's a lie, I'd still do it myself).

Wd40 and 0000 steel wool. Or mothers mag polish. Then hone and use it.

What he ^ said. I guess I'm just too old and slow to beat him to it.

I think the razor falls solidly into your C category. I'd clean it up as much or as little as you want and put it to use.

If it were mine I'd hit it with 0000 steel wool and WD40 followed by a good polishing with a metal polish. Hone it up and shave.

Bob

I call those quickies.
Clean um up with some spray cleaner ( mean green, 409, ect.) Scales n all.
Dry, metal polish, hone, and enjoy a new razor in the morning.
If I really like it, I'll take it apart for a thorough cleaning, and pin it back up.
So...C, it is.