My Great Grandfather's Kropp

Hi Ladies and Gents,

I'm new to the forum! Hope you don't mind a South African joining in.

I got my interest piqued the other day when reading an article about straight razors, and started chatting to my father about it, and this morning, after a sleepless night for preparing for an exam, he handed me a little box with my Great Grandfather's Osbourne, Garrett & Co. 'Kropp' contained inside it.

I'm quite psyched about it. I will post photo's of it as soon as I have it in a neat condition (considering it has 50+ years worth of dust on it).

I'm really glad I decided to sign up, although I can't do much other than chat. Unfortunately living in ZA has it's limits. I found out today a whetstone would cost me one-fith my salary, and ever since Gillette made it's debut in ZA, all the old folks tossed out their straight razors, so finding an antique to serve as a "project razor", would be harder than finding a chicken with teeth!

Welcome! i think you´ll find the guys on here very accomodating and friendly, don´t worry about the current condition, post pics before you get going at it yourself, if you haven´t worked on one before you could do more harm than good. Great beginners section on here that gives walkthroughs on cleaning etc

Where might I find that? In the wiki? All I did for now is put some retoring oil on the plastic scales to give them some life and just gently wiped all the dust feom the blade with a microfibre cloth and ear buds(a.k.a. Cutips)

This should get you started

Category:Blade Restoration - Straight Razor Place Wiki

I would suspect it would need a honing too, maybe send off to one of the guys here, there's quite a few, hopefully some of the guys will chip in with details

Like I said in another thread:

Quote:

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Yeah, that would be a great option, only problem is I live in South Africa, and if that razor hits customs, it would be flagged as a weapon and be destroyed, and if not, the bloody baboons would mistreat it so badly, Glen would recieve it in a million pieces...

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Have you spoken to customs about it? it might be worth asking, thats if you don't have a definitive answer already. the uk is also very strict about this kind of stuff but they get in ok. Over here virtually anything over three inches is considered a lethal weapon and technically illegal without a permit.

Greetings,

I have a Kropp and they are great shaver.

Best of luck with your endeavours.

The reason why I am afraid it would get stuck at customs here in South Africa is, when I ordered chain mailling supplies it got stuck, when I ordered a airbrush makeup thingey for my girlfriend, it got stuck and customs wanted a chemical composition sheet, when I ordered a green laser module then wanted a firearms license from me(beats the hell out of me why)...

So hopefully you can see why I dont want to take that risk with something that I hold dear to me.

wow, tough customs in SA.. and i absolutely understand

No, not tough, but incompetent. They are corrupt, so they try to make money every way possible, and they have no respect for anyone's possessions, thats why I fear to send it abroad. When I recieved my chain mailling supplies, all the packets were ripped open, all the colors and metals were mixed, and a quarter of everything was missing...$150 gone...

If you get the right tools, it is possible to learn how to sharpen and strop your own razor. I learnt how to do both just by watching a couple of videos on Youtube.

I found out, the hardware store here sells normal sanding papers up to 12k grit. So I'll go invest in some later this afternoon.

Cannot find sandingpaper higher than 1200 grit in South Africa...

If you don't mind my asking...what's the sandpaper for?

Restoring the blade.

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Originally Posted by RazorFang

Hi Ladies and Gents,

I'm new to the forum! Hope you don't mind a South African joining in.

I got my interest piqued the other day when reading an article about straight razors, and started chatting to my father about it, and this morning, after a sleepless night for preparing for an exam, he handed me a little box with my Great Grandfather's Osbourne, Garrett & Co. 'Kropp' contained inside it.

I'm quite psyched about it. I will post photo's of it as soon as I have it in a neat condition (considering it has 50+ years worth of dust on it).

I'm really glad I decided to sign up, although I can't do much other than chat. Unfortunately living in ZA has it's limits. I found out today a whetstone would cost me one-fith my salary, and ever since Gillette made it's debut in ZA, all the old folks tossed out their straight razors, so finding an antique to serve as a "project razor", would be harder than finding a chicken with teeth!

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Welcome and I hope you did well in your exam after a sleepless night.

Lightly oil your Kropp, for some reason razors that have been fine
sitting in the dark rust when discovered. I suspect that it is a quality
shaver if the Kropp razors I have are any measure.

Post pictures as it is. No need to tidy it up.
The before and after pictures tell a richer story
when all is done and said.

There are others in ZA that are fans of
straight razors on this forum so keep an eye out for
a local member that can help you hone your
blade correctly.

Given the apparent expense of whetstones
to you consider sending the razor out for the
initial honing. With the correct statements
and documentation you should be OK with
customs. Do insure it as stuff does get lost
on international shipping.

Sending an old razor out is a bargain for the
first tune up. The professionals often have
a set of hones from coarse to astounding finishers
that together are expensive as heck.

Maintaining a correctly sharpened blade is
a much simpler task so the initial expense is
less.

So tell us what you shave with now...
The blade is only part of the solution.

Welcome to SRP, RF!

After reading through the posts here, I've got a couple ideas for you. They may or may not work depending on your ability to access resources in your area.

First, post up pics of your razor and share them in the "Family Jewels" thread under razor clubs. We'd love to have it join the club!

Second, use the "community" link in the menu bar above to search for members in your area (there are members from all over the world, and there may be someone near you (or easier to get things to and from) if you can do a little searching. This could get you any number of helps, from strops, to stones, to honing, to hands on guidance.

Third; High grit wet/dry sandpaper can be picked up here in the US at most automotive parts stores and auto-body shops. If you haven't tried looking there you might get lucky. Car repair and paint work require the same tools in SA as they do here. Further, the grit ratings here in the US are about half what an equivalent stone would be rated at. Example: 500grit wet/dry sandpaper is roughly equivalent to a 1k stone, but cuts faster as the abrasives are more consistent and concentrated. 2k yields about 4k. Adhered to a plate of glass or other perfect (near) flat surface and you have an answer to the lethally expensive whetstone issue in your area. NOT what I would recommend to a new comer. NOT the best way to go. But, it's an option.

Fourth: See if you can't get a hold of a Barber's hone. They're cheap here in the U.S., and may be affordable for you to get shipped in; but you may be able to get a hold of one in SA. Getting one would help you get over the stone/sandpaper grit obstacle. Another way that's NOT the best, but Barber's hones do have their place and are very useful for maintaining a sharpened edge if you can get one honed up to snuff for you.

Fifth: Don't give up! As they say; where there's a will, there's a way!

Peace,

Thank you for all your information.

I have started a few other threads if you would like to read them.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...imum-loss.html

http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...-scales-2.html

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...compounds.html

As I have said multile times before, SA is not like the rest of the world. our car paint places dont do the quality of work that re rest of the world does. And I phoned mutiple places, and they didnt have. Saint Gobain, Bulldog abrasives, Palm Court Paints, and Alberante Autospary didnt have, but I found a guy at 3M that gave me free samples after I told him what I want to do. Altough 3M SA dont really stock it they import it for the odd customer. So with that I might be sorted. Now I am looking for brass pins. And a jewellers anvil, and I want to import some scale slabs from sheffield supply. As far as honing goes, my dad told me how he used to make his own hones using thick glass, honing oil and diamond powder(he works and a diamond polisher and cutter), so he has ample supply of diamond powder.

But what I want to get accross is, SA is in no way anythingnlike the USA or the UK. we have a very limited product range, so take my word if I say I cant find something, because I would have looked in every nook and cranny throughout SA.

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Originally Posted by RazorFang

But what I want to get accross is, SA is in no way anythingnlike the USA or the UK. we have a very limited product range, so take my word if I say I cant find something, because I would have looked in every nook and cranny throughout SA.

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For what it's worth, I have several friends who grew up in various parts of Africa, including Johannesburg. What's more, we have guys here in the U.S. who say "I've looked all over for X and can't find it anywhere." and then someone suggests, "Have you tried S-Mart?" and low and behold S-Mart is just down the road, but the thought never occurred to look there. This is particularly frequent with high grit sand paper.

I know it's frustrating when it seems as though people aren't listening to what you're saying, but you're asking for help from the collective experience, and the collective experience is that guys don't always know where to look or all of the nooks and crannies out there.

Best of luck.

Let me take brass pins for scale replacement for instance. I have phoned 33 different companies today, and all of them have BRASS PLATED pins, but no, brass pins. Once something has become an accepted standard, the rest falls away(i.e. solid brass being replaced by brass plated). I phone builders hardware, builder hardware express, mica, mega mica, jacks paint, the paint spot, the craft market, heavin forge, knife tools and machines SA, herbst knives, the gold anvil, gold traders south africa, cajees watches, dragon glass, and old ben's (which is a little hardware store in the middle of no where in sweizer reineke (which is 800kms from where I stay) that I stumbled upon once bundu bashing and they had some odd finds) to name a few, and no-one has, so what do I again have to resort to? Importing them from US or UK, and having to pay close to 100% income tax, if not more.

I have made a list of all the fanchise hardware stores, all the big wholesalers(like Game, Makro, Deons, Hyperama, Pick and Pay) which is owned by MassMart(the SA equivalent of WholeMart(soon to be acquired by Wholemart), and all the smaller stores, from Gauteng(my province) to Mapumalanga, to Bloemfontein, with numbers, so I go through the whole list(if I feel like it) when I need something(like brass pins, or a jeweller's anvil). So take it from me when I say, if you are in SA, good luck!

To quote one of the other South African members that I have spoken to:

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Yeah it's a tough hobby to be into here in SA as we don't have ANYTHING here...
I've never come across that high grit paper anywhere and I had to ultimately just purchase my hones online and have it shipped here.

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I'm sorry if I have come accross to be rude, I don't mean to be insulting or rude in any way, but there is a reason for my frustration, I have had it ever since I decided to start having hobbies. Whether it RC racing, Chain Mailling, Razor Restoring, Bonsai Trees(which is the least frustrating, apart from my desire for a Chinese Maple Tree that cant live in South Africa), or wanting to work on my Mazda Protege, i always have the same problem.

Ok,to put it like this:

I have:
A razor.
The 3M equivalent of micro mesh Micro Mesh.
Rubbing compounds.

I need:
A jewellers anvil.
Brass Pins.
Hones.
Scale Material(preferably polyester slabs)

I can get:
A hammer and polish it.
A Dremel(but I won't, they are to damn expensive)
Scale Material(like wood and bone, and some carbon fibre slabs)

I can make:
A jewellers hammer(as stated above)
My own hones(using glass, and diamond powder, whic I get from my father).

So the things in the "I need" list is thing I will more than likely have to import, and they are only pertaining to this particular hobby.

Ok, let me put it like this. My longest running hobby is chain mailing, I have been doing it for 7 years. 2 years after I started and make a few things, I learnt about anodized aluminium jump rings. I searched thoughout SA for them for another 2 years, no success, atfer which I consulted my trusted source, namely Steward from Dragon glass which has been doing chain mailing for 30+ years, and he said, you'd spend less timr opening up your own anodising plant and making them yourself than you would searching for them. There is 1 (one) company that does aluminium anodising in south africa, and they do copper plating and UV proofing. So finally I gave up, got fed up, and ordered from theringlord.com. Then after recieving them and marring the hell out of the first two jump rings with my pliers, it hit me that I will need some protective pliers. A further year passes searching for them in SA, found one company that sells flat nose nylon jaw pliers, but I need chain nose pliers, and their suppliers cant help me out, so I made several attempts at making my own by gluing shaped pieces of nylon to needle nose pliers using q-bond, and yesterday I gave up and ordered two pairs of BeadSmith chain nose pliers for the UK...see what I mean? A month from now I will be able to go on with something I that grabbed my attention 3 years ago, and not one thing was obtained in South Africa.

Wow. That sounds pretty rough... necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. I'm not sure what you need the jewelers anvil for, but if you're willing to spend time polishing it, get your hands on a small piece of railroad track. If you're anywhere near a rail station it shouldn't be too hard or too expensive. For the brass pins; have you looked for brass rod? Or small brass nails or tacks? You'll have to do some work so the head isn't too large but you may be able to find something, at least...

Indeed, my grandfather has a workshop underneath his house, and he has an old(very old) laithe(or however you spell it (the fitting and turning cutting thing, and I considered making brass pins from that. It might work very well)).

I looked for picture pins (the stuff that you use to hang the photo frames off a wall with), but yet again, they are brass plated(however, they are the perfect shape), and I dont want to take any chances on an heirloom.

As for the jewellers anvil, I would like having it, because micro abrasives are so scarce in SA, I dont want to mess them up by having to polish a piece of railroad. But the thought has crossed my mind.

Fang,

What's the brass plating covering up on those picture pins?
Also, and I know availability is low in your area, but try searching for 1/16 brass rod. It's easily found over here at knife maker supply shops as well as some hardware stores.

Hey hey, i had a look nd found, brass, SS and Titanium. However, the thinnest they have is 2mm, and 1/16inch = 1.6mm, so it'll be a tad thick.

Can an expert eye look at this for me please?

A 6/8

I am correct. So I go to 3M, and the guy hands me sanding paper, like he's doing me a massive favour...