Thread: First serious attempt at restoration

I just finished cleaning up one of a batch of crusty straight razors I got off of ebay. I didn't get a before shot unfortunately.







When I got it the original black celluloid handles where scuffed up pretty bad. The blade had some rust and minor pitting along the full length of the spine. I depinned the razor and spent a couple of hours working with sandpaper (400, 800, 1500, 2000) before moving to a polishing cloth. I still need to go over the jimps with a wire wheel, unfortunately the local Ace was out of stock when I checked this afternoon. I was also able to buff out the scuffs in the original handle with a combination of 1500 grit sandpaper, buffing cloth and denim however I opted to replace the handle with a more colorful set of scales that had come with a shipment of parts.

I ended up breadknifing a couple of minor nicks out of the blade then taped the spine and set the bevel with a few passes on a norton 200/1k combo stone. After a couple of honing attempts and some poorly advised test shaves I ended up spending the rest of the evening bouncing from 4k to 8k then back down before finally getting the razor sharp enough to shave the fine hairs at the crook of my elbow. All in all some fun practice and some great learning experience. I plan on sending the razor to a honemeister to get it truly shave ready.

Next up in the rotation: a 6/8 W&B spike point and a 6/8 John S. Holler & co with a nice barber's point, both with broken horn scales.

That is a very nice razor. I love how long the monkey tail is. Well done.