Advice on restoring this razor

Hello gents,

Do you think this is repairable? Degree of difficulty? I am mostly concerned about the edge and etching.
Attachment 318164 Attachment 318165Attachment 318166

It looks like it’s been buffed up. The edge is very ragged. I would not do anything until you get a good clean bevel set.h

It looks to be a more hollow blade. That can make it worth saving. As the amount of steel your going to have to lose might be an issue on a near wedge. Put it on a dmt and do some high angle honing until you get a clean edge. Then set bevel. After that you will know if its worth saving.

I would remove the edge on a course stone parallel to spine. Start each side at about a 45° angel to remove some and finish perpendicular to the stone. After any sanding and polishing you will have to reset bevel to solid steel.

Do you think this is repairable? Degree of difficulty? I am mostly concerned about the edge and etching

Yes, Maybe.

Depends, what tools do you have and what is your level of honing experience?

Not especially difficult and no extra ordinary tools needed.

Diamond plate, pair of calipers, 1k, 4k and 8k stone, good magnification and a sharpie.

The Etch should be unaffected.

Reshape the edge, to match the spine and even out the toe. Once you level the edge in a spine matching smile, set the bevel and see if it will hold a chip free edge.

If you just set a bevel, you will have to remove a lot of metal to get to good steel, so remove the metal and the chips first and reshape the edge at the same time, then see if the steel is any good. It will only take a few minutes to properly reshape the edge.

Good news is it is not a particularly rare or pricy razor, and it is pretty trashed, a good candidate to learn on.

Here is a post on reshaping an edge step by step, (Make me Smile).

Great thank you all for the help and feedback. I have zero experience restoring or even honing a straight razor. I would have sent it to be restored for me to use.

I like the look of this razor, but if you say that it is not to rare then I will rather keep looking for something that is better condition.

Thanks again

That’s the glory of this straight razor world, not many razors worth much so practice on it and move on to a good razor. When buying razors it’s all about the condition, that one is not dead but it has a lot of issues that you don’t need as a new guy. You could replace it for 20$ or less.

Yep. Its not the way you want to start. Keep it and put it away until you get the equipment to work on it. And no power tools! BTW, it looked like the scales were cracked too. Another thing to fix.

If your new and still learning to shave put this type of stuff away for now. Its fun to do but learning to restore and shave and hone and .... Its not going to make shaving easy to learn.

If I understand it you do not own the razor yet right? If that is the case I wouldn't spend more than $10 on it if you want a project to learn on. The good news is you would have a hard time hurting it any more. On the other hand, that one needs intensive work so maybe it's not a good place to start.

Hi Paul,

Yes, I was thinking about buying it. Seemed cheap but was more than 10$. I would have got it restored on my behalf as I do not have the skill set or equipment.

I have decided against it and will look for something that is in better condition.

Thanks for the comments.

Luke

It's always a balancing act. If you consider your time as equal to money you could spend hundreds to resurrect something you could buy for $20. If it's a hobby it doesn't translate exactly the same but it still applies that you could find one that doesn't need so much work that would be a better investment.
But then if you really, really want it it may be worth more than the monetary value. You have to make that determination yourself. If it's a goal to learn to restore them though I personally wouldn't start on one I really had the yearn for. I have made a mess of a couple I really wanted and that is a real drag.