Thread: Is anyone able to restore this blade?

The title of this thread isn't as bad as it might seem. I was recently in Greece on my honeymoon and found this little beauty in a flea market in Athens. The razor looks to be in great shape, with the exception of the rust spots on the blade, the small chip near the front, and the crack on the rear of one of the scales. It's a Solingen "Tiger", I'm guessing a 5/8", round point, hollow ground. I have no idea how to repair and restore straight razors, so I'm going to throw out an invite to any of you talented folks out there within mailing distance, if you would be able to restore this blade to its former glory, please drop me a line!

Cheers,
Cutty.

Here are a few more pictures.

Paying for a professional restoration of a razor is usually questionable value for money unless it is a particularly collectible one, or of family significance. But there is a wealth of knowledge on this website about doing it yourself. I mean "value for money" in the sense of comparing with ones you can find with a little time, which don't need such extensive restoration.

It looks like a good, restorable razor, with the exception of the gold tiger on the blade. I don't believe anybody can remove the rust without removing that too. To try, the best method would be to glue successive grades of abrasive paper to pieces of hardwood etc. which are curved to a marginally greater radius than the curvature of the hollow grind, so that they bear on the steel near the spine and edge, but not in the middle.

Keeping the original scales would take some care, as there are two breaks (on the same scale or one each) extending to the rivet hole but not on the far side. I'd undo the pivot rivet (which you need to do to polish the tang) but perhaps not the other one. If the scales are celluloid (and there are other plastics with which this doesn't work), acetone may weld up the crack. I'd press the outside of the empty rivet-hole tightly against a pencil eraser (because acetone will mar the polished surface) and drip it into the hole with a hypodermic or bamboo skewer. Alternatively I'd make thin brass washers (if none are already present) and use an electric soldering iron to embed them into the plastic.