Thread: Razor restoration pictorial

Most of this may be all too familiar to the more experienced restorers, but some folks new to razor restoration may find some interest. Also, usually by now you would see before pix and immediately following would be beautiful “after shots”, but we won’t be so “cut and dry”. Today… we “stop and smell the roses” or in razor talk, strop and feel the edge (hey, would someone come up with a better catch phrase?... please).

Now, if you are only interested in Butcher Chop Duck while the Philharmonic plays the Waltz (or other such popular brands), or expect to see new and exotic scales… you may want to click your browser’s back button now… because today we do something different… recycling!..

Good… Now the boys are gone... lets get on with it.

First up… eBay pix
These photos are slightly cropped to obscure the other razors… they probably should be a part of this discussion, but I will leave it for another topic/thread at that point the un-cropped photos will be more meaningful.
I bought this razor in a lot of three… nothing special, never herd of the brand, and like many no-name branded razors this one has only one stamp on the tang… “Milward”.

Allow me turn back the hands of time and theorize.
Back in those days a cutler would apprentice at a large cutlery firm, he may one day leave the firm to establish his own cutlery business and simply stamp his “Sir Name” (Milward) to the tang. He may produce excellent quality razors. But for whatever reason the company may be short lived, and now, today, it is almost impossible to find information about the manufacturer… such is life. But probably this razor is the only surviving one of its kind. End of theory, fast forward… present day.

As you can see she looks pretty bad… surly you won’t want to shave with it in that condition… rust on the blade face, edge and much around the pivot area, look at the close up pivot area, rust embedded in the scales, but the scales appear to be solid, pins appear to be intact, hone were seems minimal.

But we can’t tell much from these photos, many fatal issues do not show up well in photos.
Up next “as received” photos. Will there be more problems? a crack, chips, pitting at the edge?… stay tuned, next post we will see its true condition when we have-it-in-hand.

Looking forward to more installments.

If you buy many razors from online auctions, you will eventually develop and “eye” for what’s worth it and what’s not. You should develop a habit of comparing the item in hand with the photos in the auction.

First, let’s quickly confirm our suspicions.
The blade face is rusty and pitting extends all the way to the edge (that can’t be good), and plenty rust in the pivot. The jimps are relatively rust free except the parts at the pivot. The spine is as bad as the blade face… but that should also be expected.

Now we see what was not apparent in the auction photos. Look at the full blade and close up photos, excessive hone were at the tow, and the edge seems to have a slight frown (or an “S” frown), the frown is more apparent in the full rear face photo and close up. You will perceive this better if you look at the contrasting color of the bevel… normally this should be a straight line or a smooth curve.
This may not be the best example of a frown, in fact it is so slight that some may call this an “uneven edge”, because from the heel to the middle does appear “straight”, and from the middle to the toe has a smile.
In any case I believe this is a good candidate for the dreaded “breadknife maneuver”.

Hone were is not exactly what we would like, it’s a bit heavy at the tow (certainly not as bad as the other razor in the previous post… but that will be another discussion and thread), again, look at the contrasting flat spot at the spine, it is wider at the toe than at the heel… and that would probably explain why the edge at the tow is turned up. The original owner may have had a fast cutting hone and heavy hand while lifting the tang at the end of his stroke.

As mentioned the pivot area full of it rust… no doubt, she will have to be de-pinned if we will ever shave with her.

Stick around, in our next post, we discuss stripping her down to her birthday suit… err… disassemble so we can see what she’s got hidden between her... scales.

Most interesting project, smythe and one which I will follow with great interest.

Those pics look just too familiar!
Waiting for progress. Very nice thread!

Sorry, trying to pick up the pace... but you know how life issues are sometimes.

Unfortunately I took only one photo of her stripped condition (I guess she was shy).

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but for this one we only need a few hundred.

Now there are a few methods to strip a razor, such as “filing the rivet” or brake the scales, however if you want to preserve the lock washers (and sometimes the scales) for reuse, I find drilling the pin head to be the best method.
The inner diameter of the lock washer is about 1/16 inch (same outside diameter as the pin), the mushroomed pin head holds the lock washer in place, so with a 1/16 inch bit we partially drill through the mushroomed pin head to reduce the volume and effectively weakens the joint (generally we stop at the approximate base of the lock washer just in case we are not quite at dead center we don’t want to cut the sides of the washer as this will enlarge the inner diameter, making the washer difficult to reuse); at that point you may simply “pop” the pin out the scales using a punch.
It takes a lot of practice keeping the bit centered using a hand drill to prevent it wondering off into the lock washer or the scales. And things become all the more complicated if the pin is bent (at factory?). Also, when drilling, heat is one of your greatest enemies, as it will soften the plastic scales and allow the lock washer to “bury” itself into the scales.
An absolutely sharp (new) bit, a drop or two of oil, a slow drill, a steady hand and lots of practice, goes a long way (did I hear someone say "drill press".

Have a look at the stripped photo, if you remember in our previous post we could only guess the true shape of the edge, now if you look carefully you will see the slight frown we mentioned, it’s because this photo was taken at a different angle, its minor here, but believe me when I tell you, it is amazing how different the outline of a razor looks with a slight change in camera orientation (and they say pictures don’t lie).

As with many vintage razors there are no bearings (what some folks call them washers… two the little round brass disks that go between the blade and the scales, one on each side). This is not unusual, almost all old razors with horn scales have none. What they did was to roughen inside the scales around the pivot area to increase the friction between the blade and the scales so the blade would be tight after pinning, and it worked well… but too well, if the blade starts to rust in that area.

Also observe the “shadow” of tarnish in the shape of the scales at the tang area, and the barley visible tarnish line on the blade face where it rested on the scales for decades, indeed she may have been wet when last closed.

Still board? Stick around, things will pick up a bit in later posts, but up next… the After Breadknife Photos.

By the Way folks, Please forgive the poor photos, my Nikon is old and doesn’t have the dynamic range it one had, and now, it’s probably no better than a camera phone… and I’m too cheap to buy a new one just yet… lololol

Can't wait to see how she turns out.