Thread: W&B find. How would you proceed

My wife and I were out checking out some antique stores and I came across this razor. They had it listed for $40.00 and I talked them down to $25.00 I have no idea of that is a good deal because this is the first vintage razor I have bought. Funny story about the razor. when I wad looking at it the lady helping me told me the barbers notch wad put into a blade when the Barber retired. She said when he retired he would take a pair of pliers and clip the notch out of the blade. It made me smile haha.

So I was wondering if anyone had any information on this razor? Age?

I was also wondering how to approach the chip in the blade. I know I will have to take the blade back to that point. This will leave me a blade thickness of about .010 in behind the edge. Should I tri to thin the blade down (while trying to preserve the blade etching) a little closer to. 005 or so? Or would you just grind it back and gone the thing up?

Thanks for the help. Any other tips or information would be appreciated.

That's a beautiful example of an 8/8 Celebrated Hollow Ground Razor, pre-1891 since there is no, "England" stamp on the tang.

But with the chip in the blade, and the smaller chips, and who knows if there are any hairline cracks, that's a significant restore job on the blade itself. In order to get rid of the big chip, the blade will lose a lot of geometry, and I'll leave it to the pro's on the site to assess what can be done with it.

Glen has a video on here about bread knife ing on an angle.
I would start there.

That's beyond bread knifing IMO! Your talking machine grinding! And I believe the geometry would have to be corrected and the tempered care for. That's a pro's job for such a beautiful and celebrated razor!

That is a job that is beyond novice skill levels, it can be done but why take the chance? I would send it off to someone like Glen (Gssixgun) or one of the other well to do restoration gurus. Phrank has a guy that restores his monster blades but I can't recall who it is at the moment, not enough coffee yet

Well you picked a doozy for your first vintage/restore. Personally I wouldn't do anything. It can be fixed but your going to loose what makes that razor "that razor". Your going to loose at least an 8th an inch on that sucker plus the cost of it getting done, your talking a totally regrind and reshaping. Too bad too because if it weren't for that big chip it would have been a nice deal.

I wonder who told her about the pliers or did she "figure" that out on her own.

Originally Posted by Chevhead

Glen has a video on here about bread knife ing on an angle.
I would start there.

Waste of time, the chip is huge, bread-knifing will leave thick stock that will require a regrind to make the razor shave-able.

@OP: I think this razor is a lost cause

maybe you can resell it on the bay. I am not saying be dishonest and hide the chip but maybe you can at least get some of the money back. Maybe someone who just collects or someone who is really wanting a hard project will be willing to buy. Or you can just keep it as a lesson learned/collection piece. Beauty she aint but history it has.

I'd take it AND pay shipping

The feller phrank uses is called Val, and his outlet is called the gentlemans den, i think it is an e-store. He is based in toronto canada.