Thread: Attempt Myself or Professional Restoration

My wife found this for me while we were on vacation in Florida last week. After a little clean up I see that it is a WH Morley and Son's Clover Brand so it was made between 1913 and 1927. My wife paid 15 for it.

My question would be is this a good enough razor that I should have someone professionally restore it or attempt it on my own. I have seen values for it that are all over the place. Would not mind trying myself. It will need a little sanding. I took it apart as one of the pins had been replaced with a small brass screw.

Here's four photos with it cleaned up a little.

Thanks in advance for your replies and suggestions

Some traces of pitting may remain, this does not look like a wedge so there will be a limit of how much steel can be removed.
On the tang it will clean completely if you do not care for the stamps, if you do then some pitting may remain.

The razor seems to have very little hone wear so it will make for e avery nice shaver.

Go for it man. You could pay some one to restore it for you and more than likely it will look a whole lot better than you could do yourself at home, but the first restore you complete will give you a sense of pride that you can't beat. My first looked like hell, but I thought she was grand and it did shave well. Later on I went back and fixed some mistakes I made. It was well worth the time and it gave me confidence to restore more later. Use the info in the library here and go slowly you will be surprised what you can do with a minimum of tools. Just remember to take your time. You will want to shave with it and it will seem like it is never going to get done. Resist the urge and your work will pay off when you finally lather up for a test shave.

Not really a razor that would be worth the cost of a full professional restoration, but will certainly make a good shaver and project to learn the process.

Everything you need to do it you self is explained in detail on this forum in the Workshop forum.

Go for it! You can do it!

I am going to guess if it was a gift from your wife then perhaps it has more value than any other the same. It is not in very bad condition so it should be a relatively simple restore. With that being said the cost shouldn't be too high to get it restored. On the other hand it is also a good candidate for a little hand sanding and cleaning. The scales may be the only tricky part of your restore. There is a lot of information here on hand sanding if you choose that route. http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...wers-here.html

I think it looks like a great candidate for learning on. It will probably clean up well but will probably still show some pitting after its done.