Thread: My Fathers Gear

As I mentioned in my intro thread here are pics of my late fathers barbers gear which includes straight razors, scissors and clipper blades. There are a bunch so I put them up on photobucket rather than uploading here. Also, there are doubles as I did some with direct light and some with indirect light just to highlight different areas.

The straight razors are interesting.
I don't know much about them but there are three from Germany, one from Brockton MA and one from Messina Sicily.
One of the German blades are of the same name as one of the popular knife manufacturers and if I had to guess is the most valuable monetarily but I really don't know. Money doesn't mater much since they will mostly be hanging on my wall.

They all need some work but I Think I can get them in decent enough shape except maybe for one which is bent. I have an assortment of polishing tools and supplies I use for maintaining and polishing my firearms so I have some experience with polishing. It's the sharpening that I don't know a lot about and will be reading up on that.

If there is anything particularly unusual about any of them please let me know so I know to treat them carefully. The sharpening skin is stamped Boston Barbering School Inc. so I assume he got that when he completed the course.
Thanks and enjoy!

Your father surely had top quality razors: Henckels, Engels and DD are blades that only get thumbs up here. I love that Sicilian blade, never seen that brand before. The Lucky razor has most honewear so must have been his favourite. You only left me wondering what hone(s) he used.

Welcome to SRP
Great Razors

There are members in the Classifieds who hone for a fee, generally 15 to 30 USD.

Here is a link to find members in your area

http://straightrazorpalace.com/memberlist.php?do=search

They are good quality razors and unrusted but the edges are in poor shape with chips, a possible crack, and a heal spur that need to be fixed by an experienced hand for best results.

Great razor indeed

Originally Posted by Hart

They are good quality razors and unrusted but the edges are in poor shape with chips, a possible crack, and a heal spur that need to be fixed by an experienced hand for best results.

Yes, I agree.

Oth if they are going to be wall hangers and not used why bother to sharpen them to shave ready? If that is the case just clean them up by hand without the use of power tools. The "sharpening skin" is likely a strop the main purpose of which is not really to sharpen but to burnish/realign the edge after use. You would need a set of hones to sharpen and correct faults with those razors edges. That is probably better left to pro who know what they are doing and likely cheaper than buying a full set of hones to do it yourself.

You can find some useful info here Straight Razor Place Library - Straight Razor Place Library on the use and repair of straight razors.

Bob

Other than the Henckels 72 1/2 needing scale I would not do any work on them. They are in fine condition. It should make for a kicking display. Put up some pictures when it is done. I have to say though that straight razor shaving has been the gold standard for 150 years, and has survived all the "better" things that have come down the pipe. You must be curious about it. Maybe you should go get a barbershop shave and think about using those.

Originally Posted by BobH

Yes, I agree.

Oth if they are going to be wall hangers and not used why bother to sharpen them to shave ready? If that is the case just clean them up by hand without the use of power tools. The "sharpening skin" is likely a strop the main purpose of which is not really to sharpen but to burnish/realign the edge after use. You would need a set of hones to sharpen and correct faults with those razors edges. That is probably better left to pro who know what they are doing and likely cheaper than buying a full set of hones to do it yourself.

You can find some useful info here Straight Razor Place Library - Straight Razor Place Library on the use and repair of straight razors.

Bob

Yeah, I can't see beyond my own interests in getting a razor shaving my face

I'm glad there are some nice ones in there. I had a feeling at least a couple of them were nice.

With regard to restoring them only to hang them on my wall, that's the OCD in me. All of my "stuff" looks new. Guitars, firearms, motorcycle. I just like keeping things looking top notch. It's also possible I may sell a couple at some point along with some of the scissors and clippers. I'll know once I'm done with the frame and ask my brother if he wants any.

I also noticed the one that was well used and figured it was his "go to" razor. Unfortunately I never had the pleasure of having my father give me a nice straight shave.

The edges show better in the pics than in person. They are sharp but there are nicks and one is bent. I'm not up on terminology yet but I think they require being ground down and resharpened to a particular angle which I assume is what honing is. I literally just opened the box and started cleaning and haven't looked into anything yet. There was actually more rust than is showing on some of them. I used gun oil and 3M 5000 grit polishing pads to remove it. That stuff can make any metal shine like a mirror if you want it to.

Before reaching out of state I'm going to try and find out who he used to buy and maintain his blades. It's possible he just did it himself though. He came from old world Sicily and they tended to do those types of things by themselves. He learned barbering here though so I'm not sure.

I'll post a pic of the frame when it's done. It will be a while.

Here are closeups of the blade edges.

1) The Duck has a nick at the rear but is otherwise in pretty good shape and is a bit worn.
2) The Lucky is pretty clean all the way across but the most worn.
3) The Henckels has a decent sized nick about an inch from the rear but otherwise doesn't look like he used it much.
4) The Sicilian blade is the best of them as far as condition. Since he learned to be a barber in the USA my guess is that this was a gift from someone in Sicily and he didn't use it much.
5) The one from Brockton MA, where he lived most of his life in the USA, has a bend close to the halfway point. Not sure if this can be fixed but my guess is that this is the least expensive and/or desirable blade of the five.

All except the Henckels had some amount of corrosion that I polished off but some staining remains. I didn't want to get too aggressive before I knew what I was doing.