Thread: Pick a Razor for first restore!

Hi All..

Well, Ive read everything... collected all the items I think I need... am watching Bill Ellis Cd and getting more ideas... But... I still feel I need a little help to figure out which razor I should pic for my first restore...

I am lucky enough to have a few to choose from .... my father in law is a barber and has been for 50 years ... he has provided me with a few razors to practice on and I thought maybe one of these would be a good first restore..

I would like your advice on which one and a little help on how to get started... I'd like to enter the newbie contest on SRP.. I am off work from now till after the first of the year

I have a dubl duck satin edge with some rust and tarnish and some rust in the scales? I have a Antoni Tadross with nice scales but a lot of surface rust,,Ie over some beautiful lettering... will I loose that?.. I have a Shumate with some rust and tarnish and some very black something on one side of the blade and a London Cutlery with a little less rust and tarnish on both sides... the tang has a criss cross pattern that is interesting... so what do you think.. which one first?

tnx Maq.

I would start on the one I like the least out of the three so I could learn some mistakes before I move onto razors that I really want to shine. Personally I would start with the one with the black handle as it is a simpler design with common looking scales.

For a first restore, I'd use the most common, least special or sought-after one of the bunch - which, at least IMHO would be the Shumate (or, possibly, the London Cutlery).

Given a choice, if I had these four to work on and were just starting out myself (actually I've just begun my own first restoration project), I tackle them in the following order:

First: Shumate
Second: London Cutlery
Third: DD Satinedge
Fourth: Atoni Tadross

I'm not certain but DD Satinedge will probably pull a bit more value than the Antoni.

However, to my eye, the Antoni is a much more beautiful razor due to the wonderful green coloring and eye-catching artwork on what appear to be scales that are in VERY nice shape... and the loverly decorative grind on the back of the spine. So much so, that, even though the etching on the blade will likely be lost during sanding (can't tell if that's rust... or just some gunk that will clean off), I think it'll still be the prettiest razor of the bunch.

I'd probably start with the London Cutlery myself. It doesn't look like it needs too much work and would help you eaze into things and get a feel before going onto some more challenging jobs.
Good thing you have a few there, this stuff is addictive.
Cheers
Grant

P.S. Nice little collection BTW.

I have that same Tadross, w/o the rust Its a great razor! Like the others have said, try your luck on the least valuable one because you will learn from your mistakes. Have fun with it!

Nun2sharp,
Will I have to loose the etching? Is there any way to save it? Oh well....tnx for all your help... looking for all the advice I can get...tnx.. Maq

No personal experience with it yet, but some guys have been experimenting with using a vibrating tumbler to remove rust and retaining the etching.

Strikur,

Thanks... I believe I have one and I'll try the tumbler on the ones with the nice etching... I'll see what happens and I'll let you know... for now I guess I'll go with the shumate or the london cutlery.

tnx for the advice...

Maq