Thread: Cleaning antique razor box

What is the common practice of cleaning a old straight razor box? I see a lot of restored razors with no box. Personally, I would thing the box would bring value to the razor. Just like any antique. Thanks

I actually collect boxes,some are cloth covered,they can sometimes be cleaned with mild dish soap and water (carefully),Paper covered boxes? not much can be done.

Originally Posted by crazy8days71

What is the common practice of cleaning a old straight razor box? I see a lot of restored razors with no box. Personally, I would thing the box would bring value to the razor. Just like any antique. Thanks

Most of us use our razors and collections are more based on shave quality. Granted, a seven day set needs a box so you can keep your days organized...

Razors are kind of the exclusion to the rule of antiques. Examples:

Clean up that old vase, 1/10 the unrestored value. Clean up a razor correctly, sometimes [most of the time] more value.
Have the little guys that sit in that little pre-war steel car, double or triple the value. Box with a razor, most of the time no extra value.

I tend to disagree,I buy and sell alot of razors at Knife shows,gun shows,antique shows.
A high end blade with orig box and papers always sells at a 25% premium,same holds true for DE razors and guns,knives,anything vintage.
Whilst on the box subject,anyone have a clean orig box for a Weyersberg Coroneta?
Will paypal 25 bux for it in a heartbeat.

Originally Posted by medicevans

Razors are kind of the exclusion to the rule of antiques. Examples:

Clean up that old vase, 1/10 the unrestored value. Clean up a razor correctly, sometimes [most of the time] more value.
Have the little guys that sit in that little pre-war steel car, double or triple the value. Box with a razor, most of the time no extra value.

Would you clean up an old W&B chopper? Or, leave the patina on it?

Originally Posted by jerrybyers

Would you clean up an old W&B chopper? Or, leave the patina on it?

That is such a subjective question, I don't know exactly how to answer you except with specific examples from my own collection.
The Frederick, restored partially but left some black for accent.
The restored W&B, but left some pitting because of the depth.
A W&B with a bunch of rust that will be completely restored.
I also have a John Barber circa 1830 that I have done minus scales. (really need to get with Pixelfixed about that!) No compulsion about sanding/buffing it either. But I just sold a 210 year old blade to another member of this forum. I wasn't going to touch the patina on that one. Like I said, it's all subjective.

Also, like Pixelfixed said, boxes and instructions can be particularly valuable, especially on some vintage Gillette DEs. I think generally its a limited situation. Will straight razor boxes catch up? Probably eventually maybe. . Who knows.

Is truly a fine line between restore and preserve.I spent a year at the Colorado school of Gunsmithing,It was drilled into us all about restoration/preservation.
My dad was a gunsmith whos specialty was Winchester Mod.86s,he turned down alot of work back in the day,if a rifle came in the shop with even 60% of the orig blue left,he would not touch it.
Granted,are millions of great blades for real cheap, but are some that I feel should be left alone.
One of my faves,will not even have this blade honed,thats just me.

Nice razor! Of course, the flip side to restore/preserve is collector or user. At what point do you go from a collector, such as preserving antique razor boxes, to just putting on a good hone and using a great tool. The straight that I'm using right now is 150+ years old, but it runs circles around my TI. Should I retire and preserve the old razor? Or, should I use for what it was intended to do?

It all comes down to scarcity. How many Mod. 86s with >60% original blue were floating around then? How many 150 year old W&Bs are around? I have three at home now, but no Mod 86s...... Old doesn't equal valuable. Just watch Pawn Stars sometime....hahahahaha