Thread: 7 Day Set Restore Advice

Hello all,

I just got a 7-day set from eBay. The razors were sole by W.J. Guy, a perfumiere based in Piccadilly, London sometime in the 1900's I believe. The blades are all hollow ground, and were ground in Sheffield around 1900. The box is in pretty bad shape, however it says W.J. Guy 65-66 Piccadilly inside the lid, and each blade is stamped with W.J. Guy, 45 Albemarle Street W1.

The blades also say Made & Ground in Sheffield, England, which may help with dating.

I am comfortable restoring and re-honing the blades. There is slight pitting, but the edges are all straight, with barely any rust spots visible. They will polish up very nice I think, one of them is still razor sharp.

The scales are dirty, loose, and there are some hairline fractures in the areas around the hinge pins on a couple. There are no special features about the scales, probably Bakelite or some early plastic composite.

My question is, would you re-scale these, or try and clean and re-pin the scales? The set has been kept very well, and I think will be worth a bit once I've tidied them up. I don't think I can save the box, but my friend is a leather worker, and I may ask him to make me a custom razor roll for the set.


Any advice on a restoring strategy would be most welcome!


Cheers! Mark.

Save the box if at all possible.
A closer pic of one of the razor scales your worried about would be more helpful.
Do the peens have collars? If its a collarless peen you might have ivory as that is about the right color. But hard to tell from the pic.
It looks like a nice set. Nothing really special but still a nice set to fix up. Keeping the box and original scales makes them worth much more than changing the box and scales.

So post a close-up pic of the worst scales showing cracks and pins.

If it were me, I'd keep everything original as possible


Fractures in the scales and looseness could pose a problem if they are natural scales.
I'd carefully just try to tighten the pins as is, otherwise I think you could drill out the pins and adhere some metal on the scales on the inside for extra strength en re-pin them.


If it were me I might also strip the box if it's really bad and re-do it and keep it for sure. Otherwise I'd just clean it up.



Nice set btw, I have a soft spot for 7 day sets, they're pretty much the endgame for me.

Hello,

I've attached a pic of one of the pins. They're all the same, don't think they have collars. The scales are definitely plastic, quite thin and bendy. On closer inspection, the cracks look to be in the veneer on the plastic, and not all the way through.

I'm not sure how to re-pin these, but I'll try tapping one with my ball peen hammer to see if it tightens up. Drilling out the pins will probably break the scales, so I don't want to risk that if I don't have to.

I think the box can be saved with a bit of glue. My friend is a carpenter so I'll ask him to look at it.


I'm looking forward to cleaning these up.
Any more tips would be most welcome!

Mark

Looks ivory to my eyes.

Hello,

The scales are quite thin, so there is a bit of flex to them. I can bend them if I try, though not too much.

Any test to check if they are ivory? I've never had a razor with any sort of natural scales before.

Cheers,

Mark

Trust me those scales are ivory no need to test. Do not repeat do not bend them they will break. Treat those scales with care as even trying to peen the pins to tighten them may cause cracking if not done with the utmost care by someone who knows what they are doing. They are basically irreplaceable today.

Bob

Thanks Bob, I will handle with care from now on! No more bending!

I have a jewellers anvil and a very small peening hammer, so will try giving the pins some very gentle taps to see if they tighten up.

I was going to clean and polish the blades, hone them and perhaps sell the set, but I'm thinking I might hang onto them myself now. They must be worth £300 easily if I get them looking good.

Originally Posted by markc1975

Thanks Bob, I will handle with care from now on! No more bending!

I have a jewellers anvil and a very small peening hammer, so will try giving the pins some very gentle taps to see if they tighten up.

I was going to clean and polish the blades, hone them and perhaps sell the set, but I'm thinking I might hang onto them myself now. They must be worth £300 easily if I get them looking good.

You are welcome. Whatever you do when peening be careful even a poorly landed/placed blow can cause a crack. Working on ivory blades is not for the faint of heart. Well for me it isn't anyway.

Valuations are not allowed by forum rules so can't comment on that aspect.

Good luck with your project. It is a nice set.

Bob

I have a few test razors to practise on!

I'll keep you posted with my progress.

Mark