Thread: My $16 Bismarck

The short answer to all of that is, it depends.

You won't be able to completely clean and polish near the pivot if you don't, but then again, you may not care unless you're going to take the whole thing to a mirror shine.

As far as where to get the pins, read up on pinning in the wiki first.

You can get dove replacement pins that come with everything you need and only have to be peene on one side at classicshaving.com

I've used them, and personally I don't think they're worth the price unless you are certain you will only ever pin one razor, and you're really really lazy.

You can get brass rod stock and the washers you need at most hobby shops, or you can get tiny nuts and bolts for "adjustable pins" from microfasteners.com. They also carry the washers for a lot less than most hobby shops. (about 1/10 the cost of my local hobby shop)

You last option would be to send it out to somebody doing restore work and have them deal with the whole process. Lot's of money, but great results with minimum effort on your part.