Barber’s Notch Razors, with partial restorations, and some questions.
Greetings everyone,
I’m a newbie here, having only started shaving with a straight razor about a month ago. I purchased a couple of eBay razors and sharpened them up, then bought a new pre-sharpened Dovo. Those are the razors I have been shaving with, but now I’m moving on to more interesting designs.
I recently picked up three Barber’s notch razors on eBay, two Wade & Butchers and a J.R. Torrey. The first two razors I received in the mail were the Wade & Butcher “Celebrated Hollow Ground Razor” and the Torrey razor. Both razors had quite a bit of rust in the pivot area, so I unpinned the handle and cleaned off the rust. I removed all of the rust, polished the blades, and cleaned up the handles. Since I like the handles, horn for the Wade & Butcher, and celluloid for the Torrey, I reinstalled the blades in them using 1-72 stainless screws. I have included some before and after pictures of the razors. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos before I started cleaning up, so I had to use the images from the eBay auctions.
The questions I have for you guys are, is there a consensus on how far you should go in cleaning/restoring a razor? For the first two I cleaned up, I removed all of the rust and any pitting near the edge. Otherwise, I didn’t bother trying to remove all the other pits. I intend to shave with these razors, so the pitting didn’t bother me. Now, however, I wondering if I just did a half-a$$ed job?
If someone says that a razor is “restored”, would that mean that it’s cleaned up to the point of looking brand new? What about the handles, would you typically keep the original handles if they are in good shape? And, speaking of handles, is it undesirable to unpin the handles if not absolutely necessary?
In the past, my main concentration was on knives. While I’m not a big collector, I have learned that “cleaning up” an old knife is considered sacrilege by many collectors. If you do much more than preventing further deterioration, you have probably ruined the value of the knife. With straight razors, I would appear that is not the case. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
These questions bring me to my second Wade & Butcher, which came in the mail today. It’s not a bad off as the other two I worked on, and I can probable get it all cleaned up without unpinning the blade. What degree of clean up/restoration would you guys suggest for this razor?
Thanks for any insights you can offer.
