Ebay purchase

I snagged this razor off ebay the other day for under 20 bucks including shipping. The tang is stamped with the number 21 and reads "The Palmer Chicago". It is an 11/16 blade , no chips , nicks or cracks in the blade and almost no hone wear. There are a couple of spots of tarnish on the blade and a bit of very light pitting. It looks like someone cleaned it up with some steel wool , but that should buff out easily I would think. There is a bit of light rust in the pivot and trigger area that should clean up easily, and I *think* the scales are horn but I'm not 100% sure. It has a nice feel and balance in my hand , and I'd like to return it to service. I bought it with the idea of using it to learn to hone , but I'm not sure I want to risk screwing it up. Is it worth a full restoration , or just a simple cleaning and honing? I've looked around and haven't found much information on this razor , does anyone know about them?

Here are a couple of pics.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/...ves/001-20.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/...ves/002-14.jpg

bump to the top

Can't help you with ID but, after a bit of TLC to put right the over enthusiastic sanding, it looks like you gota nice one.

I think any razor that is not damaged is worth restoring...If you just bought it for practice, why not restore it? It is a Palmer..They are not expensive, but are decent shavers..So if you restored it you would have a nice rewarding shave.:beer2:

I love the shape of the blade: slight smile, square but slightly rounded point. Very little hone wear. Has the makings of a great shaver!

The scales do look like horn to me, but it's rather hard to tell from the photos.

Nice buy.

Mike

You have lots of choices here. You could spend hours progressively sanding. It sucks hard, but it can be done. You can send it out for honing, and it will shave fine the way it is. Put out a cry for help, maybe someone who lives close to you can help and get you on the way.

Thanks for the replies, gents. I've done a bit of bladesmithing, and have done some hand polishing of blades. Yeah, it's alot of work but a razor is a small piece and this one is in pretty fair shape so it shouldn't be too bad. I know that "The Palmer" refers to The Palmer Hotel in Chicago, and this was the razor provided to guests and supplied to the hotel barbershop, but I'm curious who made it. Anyone have any ideas?

Nice pictures and nice razor RickTatum. Took a while to load. The pictures are huge graphically, especially with someone of a slow internet. They make a wonderful free "right click" MS addon (if you use Windows) that is fast and really handy. Here is the direct link to Microsoft XP powertoys. Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP
It's on the right side called ImageResizer.exe

And turned the top picture into this with a simple right mouse click....
http://vernsdidj.com/pictures/misc/r...-20-medium.jpg

This picture is now only 77.1 Kb compared to the top picture of 190 Kb. Just saves a lot of bandwidth. I could go to higher resolution just as easy and would not be a whole lot bigger, 109 Kb and is 1024 x 768 in size in "large".


I use it ALL the time I upload picture to one of my websites for posting. It keeps upload times quick and it opens up forum pages a lot quicker for those that do not have fast internet.

And, for Windows Vista and Windows 7, here is the link for a clone of that same easy "right click" program. Link -> Image Resizer Powertoy Clone For Windows 7/Vista

On the picture I noticed some pitting along the blade edge. If it's a lot and runs deep, you will have difficulty (after you get rid of the smile) getting a clean lenght-ways edge without a nick cut-out from the deep pitting. Maybe it is just reflection, but take a look at it with a 20X loup or camera lense (off camera) and see what the edge offers.

Sorry about the pic size. I'll keep that in mind for future posts.

I don't have a loupe, but I did look at the edge under a good magnifying glass and couldn't see any pitting along the edge. I think what we are seeing in the image is a reflection of the weave of the cloth.

Palmers are good blades, I have no idea who made them, the scales look a lot like either hard rubber or a plastic/bakelite type material.

I think I still have a few of these around the house and have honed tons of them over the years. They are pretty nice shavers and worth cleaning up for sure.

Enjoy!!

I wouldn't make too much of an issue of the blade's smile. It will shave just fine with the profile it has now. There are not enough smiles in the world today, and eliminating one that already exists would be a shame. It looks to be capable of being a fine shaver just the way it is.

I did a quick search on Google and found another offering of the "Palmer" razor and it had a description of "Germany" on the off side.

Ok , thanks for the information. I think I'll have someone hone this blade up, rather than using it to practice on. On the scales , I was thinking horn because of its variable color and slight translucence , as well as a faintly visible fiber structure. If it is horn , it isn't water buffalo horn....I've worked with alot of that and this is different.

it's pretty easy to tell if the scales are horn or plastic - just rub them with your shirt to get a bit warm and sniff.
my money is on plastics.