Beginning Restoration Tip: November 2013

[gssixgun]

I am going to be focusing a new series of tips, on Restoration as I see issues arise for new people to this side of the hobby..

I was noticing a ton of questions this past month or so and accompanying pics all asking the same thing in the Workshop

Is this razor restorable?????

There are certain steps I take when asking myself the same thing, I decided to use my new USB Microscope to help answer some of these

First the initial pics of an "Old English Razor" maker unknown at this point in time...





Then after trying to find good steel using a DMT 325 and a Naniwa SS 400 with heavy slurry using 3 layers of 3M #700 tape

Point



Front Middle



Back middle



Heel





This is Restore Rule #2: "If you can't get a clean even bevel across the edge then everything else is a moot point" (for the purposes of these tips I am going to assume that you want to shave the razor you are working on)

As you can see from the test so far this razor is not getting a passing grade, but this is still early on, I have spent seriously 10 minutes so far, will have more pics as the test progress.. I never give up too early, you want to push the tests that way you never dump a good razor, and even then sometimes I come back to it in a month or two...