Thread: What to do, what to do...

I think I know the proper course of action with this razor, but I wanted to see if any of you had some ideas/thoughts/comments first.

This is a Wosty pipe razor, ~4/8. The blade is in pretty good shape, though there is a bit of hone wear. It looks like it will only need a touch-up on the coti to get back to shaving.




The scales...ah, the scales. I'm guessing they're dyed horn. There're quite a few scratches, and some numbers and letters on them, too. They may not be visible in the pictures. Anyway, I really like them. I saw in another thread that it's possible to sand them a bit and polish them, so if these are horn I'll try that.




The only problem is a crack at the pivot; you can tell they've been pinned too tightly. I'm wondering if my best bet at keeping the scales is going to be unpinning at the pivot, gluing the scale back together, then repinning (which is a shame, because if I do it it's going to look like crap compared to the current job). I don't have any power tools, so I'm thinking a file and some patience will get it out.




Thoughts/comments/suggestions?

I see a frown.
You can unpin with a file a hammer (be gentle with it) and a 1/16 " center punch.
For gluing you can try epoxy, then repin.

Ok I admit I am no professional blade restorer but thru my many other hobbies and life experiences (this includes professional toy restorer ( that's right plastics) and a pro bike restorer) I know many people want that rough rustic finish I think is hot! Try a bit of epoxy on most of the outside of the crack using a needle or toothpick to work it down. Don't go to the pivot all the way as you want free swing, if you want a bit of filler sand some cheap dark wood and mix the dust into the epoxy the polish you use on the rest should blend it all. I might beway off base on how to do this on a straight but I know it's how I would have started to keep a bit of the age and character of the whole, while making it strong and sturdy. Hope this helps more than it bombs.

I also see a frown. That's more than a coti job, it needs some real work on a lower grit.
I don't think that those scales will ever look new again. You could save them, but I would carefully unpin and create some replacements or send it off to be done.

Ok, I must be as blind as a bat - where are you folks seeing a frown?

Keep them scales. You might be beyond just polish and epoxy but ask a western specialization or taxidermist how to save horn. They will look sweet with that age on them like a fine leather jacket looks better with wear.

Take a white sheet of paper on a flat surface, set the razor down (perpendicular to the surface) view the razor from the side and see if any light can shine through.
Just because we see a frown doesn't mean that the lighting or something else isn't playing a trick on the eyes.

I'm not sure about the frown. Closeup photography can easily make us see one which doesn't exist, or hide one that does. It is, at least, one in which long-term honing has given a straighter line to the edge than to the back. I've always thought that a pity, but it is a harmless condition, and not one worth trying to do anything about. A frowning edge, however, is.

There is a lot that is good here. Horn is extremely tough, and a lot less likely to break across the other side than plastic. (We have just seen a thread about a really beautiful German razor with which that happened.) That pointed small end to the scale means that the scuffed and delaminating end can be polished as new, or at least much better than it is now.

I would repolish them, and I would remove at least the pivot rivet, if not both. (If you remove only that one, a piece of wood the thickness of the tang, held in place with double-sided tape, will hold the assembly together while sanding and polishing.) I would file that rivet-head and collar right down to the horn level, to get it out without further cracking. Another point of luck is that they are brass, and replaceable with tubing and rod in matching sizes which are available from model-making shops or on eBay. The collar needs to be out to close the crack. You can then drill the hole bigger for a new one, but you can't squeeze the collar smaller in situ.

Horn can be stained, and I don't know how deep it goes. Deeper, I think, than on some plastics. But it is much more likely that this is natural black horn. I don't think you need worry about sanding through to clear "windows" in the horn. Your final piece of luck is that this horn doesn't have impressed writing, which can leave you wondering how much if any polishing you can do.

There is probably a lot of dirt and oil in the crack, but soaking in alcohol won't harm horn. If you have a double-edged safety razor blade you can heat it enough to detemper it, then cut a strip with old scissors, or similarly detemper a blade from a cartridge razor. These are the perfect tools for getting out bits of dirt which might stop the crack from closing up. But if you can't, some kind of filler is required.

I would use cyanoacrylate superglue if the crack closes up properly. It it doesn't, epoxy is better. You can get a powder stain for it from World's Largest Supplier of Gun Parts, Gunsmith Tools & Shooting Accessories - Brownells , the gunsmiths' suppliers. Sawdust and epoxy won't polish to match newly restored horn, but I think it will if anything porous is treated with superglue.

Originally Posted by deighaingeal

I also see a frown. That's more than a coti job, it needs some real work on a lower grit.
I don't think that those scales will ever look new again. You could save them, but I would carefully unpin and create some replacements or send it off to be done.

Just curious (and not trying to be a contrarian), but why can't this be done on a coti? For one, when I do a straight-edge test, there's actually no frown. It must just be shadow/angle. If that was your main concern, is there something else that makes you think it needs serious low-grit work? The dilucot method has worked for me on another blade, and since this one actually has a bevel I can't imagine it would be too huge a pain.

I think he meant removal of a frown, had there been one, would have been an unrealistically slow job with a fine hone like the cotillon, and something more aggressive would speed the job up with no ill effects. This would be less significant if the edge is actually straight, and I don't think disagreement on this, from pictures, is a matter of either party being as blind as the proverbial. Most cameras with fairly wide-angle lenses alter the straightness of lines, and this is accentuated in closeups.

If the blade is simply in the condition of the usual antique-shop razor - not exactly abused, but nearly - the necessary honing would also be a lot to do with a very fine stone. I've never used a cotillon, and I'm not sure how realistic are the claims that when used with a slurry, generated by rubbing with a small piece of the same stone, it cuts as fast as a considerably coarser one, reverting to slower polishing when water alone is used. for this you would need to hunt through threads on the cotillon, or hope for guidance from people who use them.