Thread: Motivation - love of practicality

I appreciate the fine craftsmanship of many of the razors shown here. It truely is approaching the level of art.

I wanted to talk restoration from a slightly different angle. I get a special satisfaction out of taking old razors and giving them a second life. I'm not talking about the diamonds in the rough but more the three legged dogs, razors that at best might be a good shaver but never have any real value for collectors.

Taking a $5 razor that's tarnished and collecting dust and making it usable is very satisfying, especially when I can get a closer, more comfortable shave from this than the latest 5 blade plastic thingie on the market. I guess it just feels like found money. :-)

I understand your feelings. I have the same.

It doesn't save money though when you have 50 razors. I can say that I understand the old ladies with 200 stray cats though!

I know, those are almost all of the purchases that I've made so far, with only one exception - the Bismarck I got from Tony. The other 6 in my shaving rotation and the rest of the project pieces are all oldies I got for 5-15$ in various shapes... From "just a cleanup with flap wheels, a rag+polishing paste" and a honing to complete remakes... Here are some of the successful projects:
1) Satinedge 5/8 sp singer. with some fire damage. The scales were warped out of shape and into little lumps by a fire. Took them off, cleaned the blade with some polishing paste. At the time I didn't know much about restoration so I used sandpaper to remove a couple of rough spots, so I ended up with a few small scratches, but it's clean. Mounted it on DOVO SS scales, honed it, and it's a pretty good shaver.
2) The Winner 9/16 rp singer. Unknown origins. Got it for under $10US shipped, just gave it a bit of a polish with a felt pad and dremel polishing compound and a honing. The work took less than an hour and it's one of the top shavers in my rotation. <-- I can't resist talking about this one lol
3) W&B 6/8 sp wedge -- It came in a lot of 3 that I got for about $20. Took off the scales and really flapped the living crap out of it. There are still a few spots left, but it would take some serious metal removal that may affect its function to get'em out. Working on a set of plexi scales for it as we speak.
4) Tonsorial Gem 5/8 sp singer -- $15.50 Since it had lovely faux bone scales with metal end caps, I didn't remove'em, just gave it a flap wheel satin finish, a polish with the CLR polishing compound and finally cracked its honing code. The way it shaved this morning, it may give the Taylor's Eye Witness (my fav. so far) a run for its money.
Got a few others but these are the real notables. As for the money... Well it depends on the progress of my RAD. Lets hope it dies down a bit unless I win the lottery lol.

yes a lot of the ones I restore ,most people wouldn`t be bothered with
They have to be really really crappy before I will chuck them
Kind regards peter

I have quite a few that are not in the "classic" collectable model but I have cleaned them us and they shave just as well.