Restoring an old Friedrich Herder 30

I bought this Friedrich Herder razor some time ago. I have another identical one in perfect condition which is an absolute fantastic shaver. So I thought you couldn’t go wrong having a second one.
The razor was in bad condition when it arrived - a lot of rust that had let to some deep pitting on parts of the blade. The blade measures 15/16.

Attachment 222667Attachment 222668

The razor was restored following the traditional way of grinding and polishing straight razors. I used old polishing wheels of wood surrounded by leather or wheels of felt. The surface of the wheels was coated by different grades of old Naxos emery that was glued with bone glue to the wheels.
Because of the deep pitting I had to use relatively course emery in the beginning and then changing to finer emery, finally blue polishing with Naxos 5/0 and mirror polishing with a special paste according to an ancient formulation I got from an old grinder.

Attachment 222669Attachment 222670

I think I will skip the old black synthetic scales and make some new horn scales. What do you think?

Attachment 222671

It'll be nicer with the horn, undoubtely.

That is going to be gorgeous! Can not wait to see the final product

Very nice!
I'm amazed how cleanly that came out, beautifully done !
Someday I will get me a Herder too, I hear nothing but good about those blades.

I like things in pairs, I try to have pairs of all my razors, nearly impossible, but it's an idea I adopted after I received my GGF's razor gear.
He had two razors and one hone. Simple, but now I'm trying to recreate it; pairs of razors (not necessarily one set of pairs though :w )

Can't wait to see this done. I really love the way this blade looks, and the way you've restored it looks amazing. I vote horn, those blanks you have are pretty.

Well it is a beautiful blade and a great restore, Your process obviously work very well. Save that old knowledge, there is already too much lost. The horn will look fantastic.

Very nice polish on that blade, yes of course the horn…

Could you post some more on the polishing process with perhaps some photos of your wheels and emery you are using?

Did you make your own wheels and at what speed are you polishing?

Thanks for posting.

Marty

Great job on the blade restore and I'd bet the new horn scales will look good with that blade. Be sure and post the finished project.

Bob

Great restore on the blade.

Another vote for horn.

Great restore on the blade. whatever suits your fancy on the scales. Nice work!

Thank you all for your encouraging words!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RezDog

... Save that old knowledge, there is already too much lost. The horn will look fantastic.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Euclid440

…

Could you post some more on the polishing process with perhaps some photos of your wheels and emery you are using?

Did you make your own wheels and at what speed are you polishing?

Thanks for posting.

Marty

---

Well I own an old hollow grinder workshop that was build up in 1869 and was run for 4 generations. The last grinder stopped working in that workshop in 1989. It was kept together, proper and safe in its original place in the backroom of a shop. When I met the grinder several years ago and he showed me his workshop, I immediately felt in love with it. Since then I visited him several times a year to discuss and learn from him about the ancient craftsmanship of hollow grinding and polishing and restoring of straight razors. Finally I bought the whole workshop, dismounted it and rebuild it exactly in the same manner in a separate room in my house.

So all of the material I use for restoration of my razors is old material from the workshop. The bench grinders are driven via transmission. The workshop is a typical so-called “Hamburg way” grindery. There are different ways of grinding that had been established in the past in Germany, mainly the Solingen way and the Hamburg way. But I think that goes a bit too deep now and off topic to this thread. I may start a separate thread about this soon, if there is an interest. I will also post some pictures then of the workshop and the equipment.

Regards Peter

Great job on the polishing! Horn is the way to go, it is going to look great!

Peter please do, and with lots of photos. I would love to see that. There are some knife makers doing much the same thing in Sheffield, with old equipment and learning from the old guys, that did the work as kids.

Check out this recent posting if you haven’t already.

Beautiful work. Would love to hear more on the history of Solingen vs Hamburg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Peter please do, and with lots of photos. I would love to see that. There are some knife makers doing much the same thing in Sheffield, with old equipment and learning from the old guys, that did the work as kids.

Check out this recent posting if you haven’t already.

---

I cannot agree more. I am hoping you get a little time to take us on a working tour of your workshop.

Yep, I would really like to see the workshop...in fact, I am volunteering anyone who is a journeyman cinematographer who lives near Hatzicho to make a short film so we can see some of the moving pieces moving!

Like to see the end result Hope you have used Horn

Like many others I would like to see photos of your set up and, if possible, some more information on wheel sizes, the compounds used and techniques for ensuring that the blades don't get too hot.

Finally made it with Horn scales!

Attachment 224258Attachment 224259

Looks better than before I think. Was worth the efforts!

Attachment 224260

Horn look beter. But the edges/lines of the New scales are not even.
When it was mine I have a bit more sanding.
But if you are happy im happy.

Great work Peter. Nice save and it's good for another 100 years orv so.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kalerolf

Horn look beter. But the edges/lines of the New scales are not even.
When it was mine I have a bit more sanding.
But if you are happy im happy.

---

Well the curvature of the scales is not perfect. When I cut the scales, they have been some mm wider. The problem was, that the horn plates I used have not been of very good quality. While sanding out the curvature I hit a bad spot in one of the scales and it began to frazzle out at this point. Therefore, I had to make the scales a bit narrower. But I was limited, since the blade is nearly 8/8 and if I equalize the curvature perfectly to one single radius the scales are too narrow for the blade. However, in fact it looks a bit more extreme in the pictures than it is in natural. I am very pleased with the result.