Thread: My grandfather or great grandfather razors :)

First off, I'm a complete begginer with straight razors. Can you please tell me can these be restored and are they good quality razors(they are both Solingen's)? For the white one I'm pretty sure it can be restored, but for the other one I'm not sure... I'm looking to use them after restoring. Also, can you give me some informations if you can about them...

I have full set of DMT stones and Ozuko Kiita finishing stone... Unfortunatelly, I still don't have leather strop. Can you give me some guidelines about restoring. Can a complete begginer do this?

Here are the pictures(on the darker razor of what I suppose is a carbon blade is written "Solingen magnetstahl")...

Thank you in advance,
Ratko

I can't tell you anything about your razors, but with regards to resto work, if you've never done anything like razor resto's before then, leave it to the pro's for something as important as your family treasures. We have a few more than qualified to do the work for you right here on this forum.


Mick

I would have to agree with Mick here. Razors are different animals than most realize. I see no major issues with the Henkels, but that could be different when in hand.
I would also suggest not honing for your first razor since they are heirlooms and diamonds can do a lot of damage to a razor very quickly I would at least suggest sending it out to be honed. We have some great honers here just check the classifieds for some quality services or check out the restorations section to see who does work that looks good to you and PM them.
I would also suggest picking up a quality strop, it is essential to your success as a straight razor shaver.

Can you recommend me some quality strop? I wouldn't dream of restoring them myself if i was living in US, but I'm in Serbia and it would be very complicated and expensive to send the razors to US and then back here...
Can you tell me something about the quality of these razors?
Not all my stones are DMT. I wrote that I have one natural finishing stone...

Straight razor designs or heirloom strop for the better one's. Illinois, dovo or ruprazor for a basic model that might need to be replaced. Many people nick their first strops and as such they usually get a cheap one, I think that this is a poor idea. If you get a quality strop they usually have replaceable stropping surface which ends up being less expensive in the long run.
In Serbia it could be hard. Read a lot on hand sanding here in the wiki and ask lots of specific questions.
Both of your razors are of high quality and I have owned some of both. The guarantie looks gone, the blade is just worn down. If you wish to repurpose there are some who have made carving knives and letter openers with old blades. The Henkels looks in better shape with little hone wear, I would hit it with a rag and a little polishing compound to see how it cleans up. I don't even know that I would bother to unpin.
I don't like the DMTs as bevel setters on straight razors, the amount of work to remove the deep scratches make them counter productive. If that's all you have they will work. I would start at 1200 grit DMT to set the bevel. There are thousands of posts on here regarding the intricacies of honing, but spend some time on youtube researching gssixgun's methods. I don't know your Oozuku and they vary dramatically. If your Oozuku is a great razor finisher I would suggest eventually learning how to use a complete nagura progression. Do you have any nagura and which ones? Have you lapped your Oozuku?

If it wasn't for the fact that it is your grandfather's razor I would say you could have a go at restoring them yourself. But because they are a family heirloom, the risk of stuffing them up would be too great. As I see it, you have two options. First, you could send them out to a restorer to be cleaned up and honed. We have some people here who can work miracles with old razors.

Your other option is go get yourself some other cheap (read old, not pakistani) and practice restoring razors.

But with either option it would be a good idea to have your first razor honed by a professional (some one from from SRP and not the knife sharpening guy who thinks he is a professional).

The straight razor designs premium strops ate superb. I can't recommend them enough. And it's reality neat that you've got some heirloom razors.
My 86 year old grandfather was over yesterday and saw my stand o razors, brushes, and strops and just stopped in his tracks. He asked me if that was what he thought it was and I food him it was. He picked up my SRD Premium II and ran his hand up and down it. Then he picked up one of my razors and stropped it for a minute. When he was done his eyes were moist and he told me "daddy always shaved with a straight razor. I never learned how to, I just got one of my older brother's safety razors. Daddy just had me strop his razor for him. When he got too old to do it himself he went to the barber shop 3 days a week for his shave".

This is the third time I've seen him get this emotional. The first was after he and my grandma went to see Saving Private Ryan. He left 15 minutes in to it. I was living with them at the time and when I asked why they were home so early he struggled not to cry and told me it brought back too many memories. The rest of the month he had an album of photos from his time in the army out by his chair and spent a good portion of the day flipping through it. The second time was 4 years ago when my grandmother had a stroke.

It was also the first time I had ever heard him mention his dad. My Grampy was the youngest of 12 from WV. He has nieces and nephews older than him...

Anyhow, treat those family razors with respect and cherish the memories they'll bring.

And get them a worthy strop.

The Oozuku stone will be brought to me today by my friend who picked it up in US. So, I don't know anything first hand about it. I bought it from mainaman on knifeforums. I think he is a member of your forum(famous one )... He said: "BTW if you shave with razors this will also work for honing them as finishing stone. "
And regarding Nagura, I don't have any. He sent me some polishing stones as a gift. I will see them today. Is Nagura only used for building slurry?

What does 50 1/2 means on my Henckels?
Also, what type is it?

Everyone vanished