Thread: To restore or not?

Gentlemen, I have this old razor someone gave me, a Genco "head barber". It has been honed to death from the looks of it and is pitted real bad. Under my little scope there are pits so bad in the 1/16" wide bevel you can see through them. My question, is it worth the trouble to try and restore this little 4/8, or better to save the scales and toss it? Thanks, Ron

It could probably be restored alot easier than you think but as a 4/8s it's small to begin with so I wouldn't unless you want the practice. However if you like shaving with small razors it might be your cup of tea.

Well my two favorite razors are old 4/8 JA Henkels, not because of their size, they just take and hold an edge better than any of my new Dovos.
I am going to try to restore this old Genco in hopes that the steel is closer to the Henkles. I tried sanding with some 600 Whet/Dry, and buffing with
a dremel and rouge for steel today, but nither came close to removing any of the pitting, would I have better luck on my 8" buffing wheel? If so what abrasive should I try?

Thanks again for any help, Ron

I'd be carefull with an 8 inch buffing wheel. A dremmel would serve you better. However for pits along the edge you really need to hone them out. probably a 1K hone or coarser.You just need to remove metal along the edge until you get past the pits and into good steel. Then you'll have to redo the bevel. As you hone you'll see how the steel is. You may find it's not worth the effort but you won't know that until you start removing the metal. For the blade itself any rust can be removed by hand sanding or with a small tool like a dremmel. If there are pits on the blade itself you might just want to polish and soften them rather than try and take them out completely.

Bad news is, if you can see thru the pits in the bevel they will likely chip on honing & you will end up with a less than 4/8 razor. You may also need to re-dress the rear flange for it to sit flat on the hones if the edge meets the stabiliser.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...ing-heels.html
The good news is Genco razors are great shavers. Why not give it ago. Worse case , you throw it away but gain experience. G'luck

Before getting into a lot of sanding and buffing see if you can hone it past the pitting. If you cannot get past the pitting to good steel at the bevel the edge will keep falling apart and you'll never have a good shaver out of it. So bevel first and then worry about shining the rest of it up.

Thank you-all very much, good idea on trying to get an edge first, at this point looks really doesnt matter much! I will try all this good advise, Nothing to loose, mabe a good little 3/8 American steel shaver to gain.
Thanks again to all! I will let you know how it turns out!