Thread: Tatay's Razor

Evening, ladies and gents. Just a little story I thought you all might like and a question.

I'm a Filipina-Canadian, emigrated with my family when I was 5 or so. Unfortunately, this meant I never knew my grandfather who was already in Canada with my grandmother (Tatay and Inay, respectively) and passed away before I arrived, much less developed a conscious memory. From my Mom's stories, I always respected him, though we're not the sort to dwell on the past so those were few and far between. In fact, it was only last month that I learned my love of woodworking down to particular joinery preferences, a tendency to MacGuyver (not actually a traditional Filipino term ) my own tools out of whatever was in my relatively short reach, and darn near freakish obsession with maintenance resembled his and his father's before him.

Unfortunately, none of said "MacGuyvered" tools or even the balisong/butterfly knife he was always storied to shave with made it to me. There has literally been no heirloom in the family except for the house in Batangas. Until now. I found this well loved piece in it's leather sheath looking through my Inay's old room for superglue. You can imagine what a tremendous find it was.





I mentioned before I'm an aspiring woodworker and that I never inherited woodworking tools, right? Well, I've picked up a thing or two about restoring but with respects to Misters Disston and Bailey, I never regarded their pieces with any such reverence as I feel for this razor. So any advice on cleaning it up gently is much appreciated. I'm generally very utilitarian about restoration but this isn't for me, I'd just like to make sure it doesn't deteriorate any further and send it back to Inay. I'm sure it would mean a lot to her. For reasons I won't get into, she's unable to return to Canada after a visit to the Philippines and Tatay is buried here.

I've currently got naval jelly on hand but I know where to get Evapo-Rust and I hear it's gentler.

That blade is not rusted by what I can see. It just looks like it may need honed and used, which is exactly what I would do with it. For a light cleaning, you can use any metal polish and a cotton rag. Watch that edge though, I'll bet it is rather sharp...maybe even razor sharp.