Well, it's been a while since I posted and things have moved on quite a bit. I'm not quite at the 'treatment required' stage but it won't be long. After 6 months of shaving with a straight I'm now restoring them for my own use - my pride and joy being a Kropp I tidied up and honed, now in regular use. Not a major restoration by the standards here, but a first dip in the water.

You guys were right about starting with a shave ready razor from an expert to set a benchmark, that honing is tough...

My latest project is a Cadman and Sons 'Bengall'. It was pretty beaten up. Bent pins (what happened there!), ebony scales with bad scratching around the blade pins and a little yellowed ivory spacer. Blade intact, badly tarnished and pitted in places. Clearly a job for taking apart and re pinning. All that done the blade looks great (so much so that the Kropp might be the next one for a fully stripped down service) and the ebony scales although a little thinner toward the ends are silky smooth and sound, ivory has come up white. So I now have a couple of questions...

- What to finish the ebony with? I was considering Tung oil?

- The original set up had no washer spacers between scales and blade. I have the option to put these on now, although I'd prefer to keep the original set up. Is there any advantage/disadvantage to this? Old razors don't have them, but I've seen newly scaled razors with them on. Would there by any point here?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thank you all.