Thread: Are these salvageable?

I bought a lot of five straight razor blades on eBay a couple of months ago, and they arrived today. My idea is to clean the blades up, polish them, and then make new handles for them outof some wood I have.

I put my 6/8 German Hoppe as a size comparison in the pics below. The bare blades are, from top to bottom (sizes are what I think they look like, I haven't measured them):

1, Spike point, 6/8. On the tang: "Imperial razor, Warranted, Registered 20507, Germany". On the blade: "Extra Hollow Ground, Fully Warranted". Jimps on the bottom of the tang.

2, Spike point, 6/8. On the tang: "Hugo Rader, Solingen" and what looks like a couple of beakers or jars. Jimps on the bottom of the tang.

3, Spike point, 5/8. On the tang: "Domino" and on reverse side: "T. Noonan & Sons, Boston Mass. M. Germany". Tang has a faint checkered pattern. No jimps.

4, Oblique point?, 5/8. On the tang: "Manufactured by Henry Sears & Son" and on reverse side: "888". On blade: "Queen 3/4". Jimps on the bottom of the tang.

5, ??? point, 3/8?. On the tang: "R.J. Roberts, Sheffield". No jimps.

They all show some hone wear, and #5 has significant hone wear and appears to have been ground down unevenly, maybe from a 4/8 spike point?

#2 has a couple of very minor nicks in the edge, which should come out easily, and the tip has been chipped off, also very minor. I haven't been able to see any chips or cracks in any of the other blades. The only other razor with any issues is #1, which seems to have a lot of rust pitting all along the edge.

I'm thinking that #5 will me my initial project, just to get the hang of things, since I feel it's unlikely that it will be regarded as a shaver, with the uneven hone wear, so it doesn't matter if I screw up majorly on that one.

What do you guys think? Should they be usable?

/Nicholas

I'd say, if there are no cracks (sorry, I did not have time to read the post), than all but the bottom one look 'salvagable'

They would look even better with scales!

C utz

Looks like your assessment is correct, to me. You've got some nice looking blades and some fun restoration ahead. Cheers!

yeah i agree with the others here, you picked up some nice blades, shouldn't take much to bring them around. keep us posted on the progress.