Thread: Newly Aquired Straight Razors

I recently was given these razors from a friend. I am interested in restoring 2 or possibly 3 of them. The J.C. Vickery and the wider Wade and Butcher (the 2 at the top) I am most interested in restoring, as well as the Genco, which is probably the cleanest of all the razors, but has broken scales. The only one I don't have a brand name on is the one with the orange scales, but it has a curled mustache logo on one side of the tang. Anyone know what that is? Of the brands J.C. Vickery, Wade & Butcher, Lyon Bros., Genco, the mustache logo one...are any of these particularly rare or worth more than any others? I noticed 2 of my blades have a curve the edge if you look at the side.

Thank you,

Steve

It looks like you have a few razors that could be made functional there. Now, there are more experienced people than I that could chime in on this: but that orange one looks like it has cell rot to me, you'll want to keep it away from the other razors. Other than that, it looks like you did pretty well. Good luck.

BTW, I really like that frameback, it looks like a sturdy piece of craftsmanship.

The "curled mustache" razor is a Wade & Butcher Bow Razor. It does look like it potentially has cell rot. I would keep it away from the other razors to be safe.

I'm inclined to agree on the cell rot. That speckling of rust along the edge of the blade is very symptomatic of cell rot. I'd isolate that blade away from the others and bin the scales. It's probably the case that the blades had it as well, as it looks pretty rusted.

The others look to be in very good condition though! Good score!

I like them all, except the 3rd from the top that has that "dip" in the middle of the edge. I'd swap the scales on the 3rd from the top , to the broken scaled Genco.
Just my thoughts.

The one with cell rot...break the scales off of it and throw them in the trash immediately & oil all of the blades. That blade may be toast as well, the only way to tell is to take it to say a 1K stone for 10-20 strokes and look at the bevel under some sort of magnification. If the rust has pitted the bevel then it's a goner as far as shaving...but don't pitch it as it's still good and hard steel that can be used in many other ways. The others are a great looking bunch...get to restoring them!

I'm going to do some agreeing and disagreeing here.

First, absolutely, separate the Bow razor from the rest. Cell rot is an off-gassing of celluloid scales that causes corrosion of blades and can trigger cell rot in nearby scales. Don't break off the scales yet because you need them to hone the razor. This is your practice blade for honing. It is likely that the edge looks like cottage cheese and that has to be honed away. Pitting in the bevel does not mean the razor has to be thrown away, you just have to hone past it. Magnification, as mentioned, will be needed for this as it will be the best way to know when you have reached good metal. You have to practice honing anyway, so you might as well practice on one that needs a lot of steel removed.

The curve when viewed from the side is called a smile. That is a good thing, but can be a little more difficult to hone. A reversed curve, even a slight one, is called a frown (surprise) and is a bad thing. If you read about a thing called bread-knifing in this forum, ignore it. That razor is NOT a candidate for bread-knifing.

All of those razors have the potential to be made into good shavers. Whether they end up pretty or not depends on how much effort you want to put into them.

Do you intend to shave with them?

First, let me say thank you to all who have responded so far. The cell rotted W&B Bow razor has been separated from the rest of the bunch. I am very interested in restoring most of them and making a couple of them shave ready. Does anyone have a detailed link I can use as reference to restoring them? Should I get started with 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper? I'm guessing the 2 blades with the frown may not be the best to attempt to restore? The frameback is also really rough and looks like it's been taken to a grinding wheel.

Steve

Great advice Utopian, thank you! The bow razor looks as if is serrated, so yes, it's really rough. Do you have a good resource for blade restoration that I can refer to? I was thinking of using a lot of elbow grease and 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper to get started...but not sure if that's the right direction to go. I do intend to shave with a couple of them, although I only recently switched to a safety razor...straight razors are my next step.

Tape the spine if you plan to use some sandpaper on it...no sense giving it any undue wear.