Thread: Still good enough to shave with?

My wifes grandma died before thanksgiving, so we went up their for the service. Long story short, her parents had cleaned out the house and sent us back with a bunch of stuff, one of the things being a Geneva straight that was her great grandfathers, and they gave it to me (its still sharper than hell). I took a few pictures and was wondering if the blade is to worn to hone and use.









Here is a picture of the strop it was with.

I would try to get that frown out of the blade, but it definitely looks like it can be made to shave. I think shaving with heirlooms really has a lot of meaning for folks.

Good luck with it.

Have fun.

Gencos are incredible shavers. I'm probably unusual here, but I've enjoyed better shaves more consistenly w/ a Genco than most of the trophy names and models. An heirloom blade from your ancestor, very much deserves high quality restoration work. The frown shouldn't be hard to remove, but having it in near new condition from a bladesmith would give you more in pride (and great shaves) than the cost of the work. As Lynn mentions, there's meaning attached to such a razor - a connectedness to your roots and ancestry. Though many could do decent work, I think you'd be most happy w/ professional quality work. There are very capable guys that can do it in the vendor section. If you do so - pls post the pics. The loom strop could also be brought into usable condition - likely needing new leather. 'Sound like you have most of the ingredients for some really special shaves.

Congrats on having the greatest razor a person can have, an heirloom! Genco razors are really fine shavers and this one is no different. Before you spend a bunch of money on it I would give it a good cleaning with soap and water. An old toothbrush would help. If you want to go further, Semichrome, Maas, Flits or some other metal polish, a hardware store single edge razor blade, a toothpick and some gentle elbow grease and it should look really nice. If you are not experienced with honing that is where I would spend any money on the razor to get it back to shave ready. Some time in the future you can spend some money on a restoration but I personally would leave it as is except for some cleaning and hand polishing.

Got the razor back yesterday from Lynn and wow, what an amazing job he did with it. I shaved with it this morning and its one hell of a razor. Thanks for getting it cleaned and honed for me Lynn, great work.