Thread: POLL: razor restoration

Originally Posted by Philadelph

I'm not quite understanding what the question is?? From the poll options it could be a few things. Care to elaborate?

OK, english is just my 4th language (after Italian , Spanish and Latin), so I apologize for not being clear.. .. but I try to do my best daily.

I just want to say that restoration started to be analized in detail during the XIX century, when the relationship between present buildings and ancient ones started to become difficult (what could be destroyed to make new space?). At the beginning of the XX c. the question was extended to arts and then to common objects from the past, adapting to new fields principles elaborated by architecture. OK, this is an historical overview.. With the poll I just wanted to investigate which are your tastes when restoring a razor or buying a vintage razor. And a poll is always a simplification of real things.

So now I have just to apologize for the new errors in the paragraph above.

Originally Posted by clavichord

OK, english is just my 4th language (after Italian , Spanish and Latin), so I apologize for not being clear.. .. but I try to do my best daily.

I just want to say that restoration started to be analized in detail during the XIX century, when the relationship between present buildings and ancient ones started to become difficult (what could be destroyed to make new space?). At the beginning of the XX c. the question was extended to arts and then to common objects from the past, adapting to new fields principles elaborated by architecture. OK, this is an historical overview.. With the poll I just wanted to investigate which are your tastes when restoring a razor or buying a vintage razor. And a poll is always a simplification of real things.

So now I have just to apologize for the new errors in the paragraph above.

Noting what I have highlighted in the above quote, if it is a mistake due to the fourth language I apologize ,,,,,,,, but that is the characteristic of the best restorers IMHO .

If I am understanding this correctly, the question is should we restore razors or leave them be ???

First there are two types of razor collectors out there.

The first group, most of us here at SRP, and the other shaving forums, are shavers first and foremost, and collectors second..
So our blades must be free of any active rust etc: or they could actually be dangerous to use in our pastime... So I would say yes to most restoration... Taking it as far as each owner deems they would like to... Personally I want clean, bright, shiny, steel on my face....

The other group of collectors out there are mostly after the vintage scales and razors, so they would look at restoration as a bad thing, because they want to keep the razor as original as posible...

Two totally different points of view on the same subject matter...

Exactly, and the poll is intended to count persons among both types of razor collectors and collect opinions.

I understand what sort of information you're interested in collecting, but I can't vote based on those parameters.

Each razor is different for me. I have no rigid set of guidelines which constitute how I view all straight razors I own. Some I have designs on restoring them to as close to mint condition as is possible. Others I'm more than satisfied with when I clean off any obvious residue or crud, hone the razor and shave with it leaving any and all patina/oxidation intact.

Chris L

Originally Posted by clavichord

Exactly, and the poll is intended to count persons among both types of razor collectors and collect opinions.

A good question but, the group here is naturally going to swing toward at least minimal restoration if only for safety/health reasons....

LOL or even better I am against restoration I only buy NOS Mint
razors

Thanks, Chris L, very clear! The space for comments is for this:explain different positions, or positions impossible to be mapped by the poll.

There's nothing sexy about shaving with something that looks like it belongs in the landfill. That said, each restore is unique. The razor is a template from which the final art will spring. As Glen points out, those that wish to collect for the sake of collecting alone and not shaving will not want to see the original piece tampered with, but some razors which could benefit from a little resto might be hindered by too much. One thing I like about the way the patina is rising back up after a few years on my W&B is that you can tell that although the metal was buffed to a shine before I used it, there was no harsh grinding of the metal. She's aging very well indeed.

X

I chose "as new" because that's how I prefer them. That being said though, I have no problem keeping a razor all original if it is in decent shape. I rarely find the ones I like in good enough shape though! I pretty much agree with what others have said about the SRP demographic. There are mostly 'users' rather than 'collectors' here, so it may be a very biased poll!

Thanks for voting, Philadelph.

Originally Posted by Philadelph

... so it may be a very biased poll!

..but at the "end" of the poll YOU could say that X% of members are mainly collectors and Y% mainly users, even if I do not completely agree with this reading.