Thread: First Restoring on only razor

Hi all,

I have been inspired to restore my one and only razor.
When first purchased I had to remove a lot of rust and then I had a knife maker sharpen it, so it turns out I have been shaving with a non shave ready razor for about 6 months now. Cant wait to have a good razor.

Looks like I will be using the clippers for a while till I get the razor done.

Here is the disassembly.

One of the ivory sides broke while taking it apart, it is pretty dry to begin with. Sucks, but I can use it in my jewelry. I think I will replace the broken one with either a different kind of bone, ebony, or even maybe flower pedals in resin.

The blade will need a lot of cleaning. The razor is a 172 J.A. Henckels Solingen Zwilling Swerk.

Oh I cant find my digital camera so I had to use the computers.

Originally Posted by Akady

Hi all,
... I had a knife maker sharpen it...One of the ivory sides broke while taking it apart, it is pretty dry to begin with. Sucks, but I can use it in my jewelry. I think I will replace the broken one with either a different kind of bone, ebony, or even maybe flower pedals in resin.

The blade will need a lot of cleaning. The razor is a 172 J.A. Henckels Solingen Zwilling Swerk.
.

That's a nice razor to start with. I have no Henckels razors but I collect their cutlery.

The busted handle is no surprise. Unless you were planning to just clean the razor up, you likely would have ended up replacing the scales anyway.

Two Questions:

1. When you had a "knife maker sharpen it", do you know what he/she did? I mean did he/she use any reference/datum to set a proper and repeatable bevel?
2. Flower pedals (I think you mean "petals") in resin? Are you saying you'll make a casting? Have you done this before? If so, please share the process. Inquiring minds want to know.

Later Gator,

Brad

Originally Posted by icedog

The busted handle is no surprise. Unless you were planning to just clean the razor up, you likely would have ended up replacing the scales anyway.

I was just planning on cleaning the blade since it was so rusty when I purchased it and the hidden part of the tang was still rusty. I am also going to use sterling silver for the pins instead of the the standard brass. But the break offers a lot of options like inlays and what not's.

Originally Posted by icedog

Two Questions:

1. When you had a "knife maker sharpen it", do you know what he/she did? I mean did he/she use any reference/datum to set a proper and repeatable bevel?

I honestly dont know, this was when I was abroad in japan and well I know a bit but not enough to communicate with the shop owner, he did have some of the much sought after japanese razors, sadly I could not afford them.

Originally Posted by icedog

1. Flower pedals (I think you mean "petals") in resin? Are you saying you'll make a casting? Have you done this before? If so, please share the process. Inquiring minds want to know.

Later Gator,

Brad

Ya thats right I go to college. Yes it would be a casting, I have done this before in many different materials: plaster, resin, rubber, silver...

I am a Theology/Art Major with a focus in sculpture and jewelry/metal smithing (look at grad school for sculpture and metals).

To do it you will first need a piece to take a mold of, so in this case I will use the other side of the scale that did not break. I would use either a rubber(smooth-on has great stuff and a lot of information on their site), then a mother mold of plaster on top of that to make it so that rubber does not move while casting. OR I could go with just a strait plaster mold, but since the scale is porous I will go with a rubber. Before mixing an pouring the rubber, I would seat the scale on some clay to raise it up a little to add basically a sprue. Then I would spray it with a release agent and then pour my rubber. Once the rubber was set I would spray that with a release agent and then pour the plaster mother mold.

There are a few other techniques, but this is easiest for beginners.

Originally Posted by Akady

Hi all,
One of the ivory sides broke while taking it apart, it is pretty dry to begin with. Sucks, but I can use it in my jewelry. I think I will replace the broken one with either a different kind of bone, ebony, or even maybe flower pedals in resin.

Real ivory scales are so nice that they're worth trying to salvage. You seem to have all the pieces. You can fit them together with superglue, then epoxy on a liner (like fiberglass cloth or 0.005" brass) and they will be structurally stronger than new.

I think it would be really strange to have a razor with different scales on each side, but to each his own.

In any case, if you don't want them, please PM me for my address, I'll gladly pay postage...

I think the flower petals in resin would look great,but would it be strong enough? Resin is strong, but if it isn't adhering to something its not as strong. What resin would you plan on using? I wanted to put a rose bud in a scale and have a PCR for my girlfriend but I wasn't sure it would work...

So as I clean the razor more and more I get more and more conflicted. I know it is important to remove all rust and make it as hard as possible for it to return, but as I see all the tiny pits and gray areas go away I see the blade loosing character. I like basically have a love for all old things (except women, I prefer them to be more my age) . I like shiny things too, but with a blade I think the tarnish adds character, so I am a bit conflicted to say the least. Just thought I would share.

It's your blade, do whatever makes you happy with it!

I have a lot of blades with character, I know what you mean. You could help save the character even more if you were to save the ivory as was suggested in a previous post, that is if you liked the ivory to begin with.Either way, good luck.

I totally agree! Perfect mirror shine looks good but its just a mirror shaped like a razor to me sometimes. Some look better with it and some dont. I like to get a feel for the razor and let it pick what it wants to look like...

The most recent debate is acid etching. As of right now my thought process is well I guess water makes stail bread un-stail in the mouth, so I can spend a few extra buck on the razors.