Thread: Poorly made Tang

So I bought a batch of straight razor on Ebay and am trying to restore some of them, I came upon this one:





It seems the tail was made out of rubber or plastic which may have been a great idea to conserve steel in the short term but obviously it is not quite as sturdy. Anyone have any experience dealing with razors made this way? Anyone have some tips for best way to make a new tang and what material to use?

Would be very interested to hear some thoughts!

If that's what I think it is it's not plastic. Some higher end razors had ivory or MOP or bone riveted over the tang.

Looks likie horn to me and maybe the tang was bent later in its life.
JMO
~Richard

There have been a few people that have replaced them with the same or similar material and some have used new materials like kirinite. Check the show and tell and the workshop forums.

They’re right. Usually this was a decorative detail done with ivory, bone,MOP etc.
Most times the tail was complete like these here.(upper sketch) and slabs were pinned on. But occasionally the tail was kept short and a slot was cut into the new tail material ( large sketch and pinned as well .
To do one like yours the scales and old material is removed. Select a new piece of stock and cut a slot through it the width of the bare tang . You can then do it as a full covered tang or pin in place as it was . Then contour the entire piece to shape.
Not so much a poorly made tang rather one that took some skill and time for a decorative touch.

I restored one with birdseye maple that turned out pretty well. It was a fun razor to restore. In the before photo (last ones) you can see the tail looks chewed up and needed replacement. It was also made of wood when I got it. Probably not original, but whoever did it did a good job.