Thread: First Ebay Purchased Razor & Subsequent Restoration Attempt

Nice work on the restoration. Angle will vary with razor size. Also one thing that I noticed was that you pasted the razor 3 times to be happy with the egde. You should be happy with the egde off the 8k and then the pastes should smooth it out and add a little more. My suggestion is try to get a edge your happy with off the t8k before moving forward. Also a good stropping will work wonders.

Good that you got some magnification. Honing without magnification is like driving with your eyes closed. How will you know when you arrived and chances you will have a problem before you get there?

Depending on what you see, will determine your course of action. If you had pitting just on the bevel, someone put it away without cleaning, soap, skin, water and blood, oxidized and ate the steel at the edge. This will have to be removed to get to good steel or you will have a chippy edge. You may have remove enough, but if you see more chipping, you will have to remove more steel and set the bevel on the 4K.

Tape the spine, you already have excessive wear in the middle, probably from way too much pressure, and may ruin the spine before you get it set without tape or at least wear the bevel severely.

Tape breaking down on the stone is from using old tape, too much pressure or both. If the tape was in your garage, temptures can easily reach 100 degrees and cause the glue to break down. If you have to do a lot of bevel work and you are new to honing, use 2 layers of tape and check it frequently for wear. Once the bevel is set it can easily be re-set to 1 layer, if you wish with just a few laps.

Next time some 600 and 1000 wet & dry and a cork might speed a cleanup.

Once you do get it dialed in, Genco’s are great shavers. That one looks like a full hollow.

Some awesome advice. Thanks

To get photos through the loupe, you may need more than two hands, but it should be possible to take phone photos through it, but there may be a distance between the loupe and the phone. I've taken pics through optical sights with my SLR, so it's definitely possible.

Originally Posted by Robbied

To get photos through the loupe, you may need more than two hands, but it should be possible to take phone photos through it, but there may be a distance between the loupe and the phone. I've taken pics through optical sights with my SLR, so it's definitely possible.

I'll definitely have to give this a shot.

I've reset the bevel on this Genco razor and rehoned it. I can definitely see how loupes are invaluable in restoration, or anything beyond basic refreshing of the blade. Without using a loupe I would have no way of knowing if there were still issues remaining at the edge, or see potential issues further up the bevel. After resetting the bevel I did a pyramid honing on a 4K and 8K, followed by 20 passes on CrOx and 40 on FeOx webbing strops, followed by 60 on leather. I shaved with this razor this morning. In the end, the razor was just as sharp as before, and removes hair with ease. The shave was more comfortable than the first shave, but not nearly comfortable enough (I may be a bit spoiled by the Dovo). I could tell when looking through a 20X loupe that although I had honed out the large pitting, the edge of the blade was not as smooth as it should be. I could faintly see a very slight jagged edge. I don't see that when looking at my Dovo's edge. I assume that jagged edge is the result of very fine micro pitting along the edge still. There's still a possibility of going further with this razor in hopes of saving it, but for now I'm calling it a good learning experience. Ebay razors are risky. There is really no way to determine the state of an edge from the images you get. Best bet for Ebay is to find a few very well known razor seller and stick with them for your purchases. Does anyone have a few sellers they are familiar with?

Thanks a ton for the feedback while I worked on this razor. Extremely valuable information!

Originally Posted by eddy79

My suggestion is try to get a edge your happy with off the t8k before moving forward. Also a good stropping will work wonders.

Outstanding advice going forward! Would have saved a ton of time if I had done this. Thanks