Restoring very old razor

Greetings all, I was directed here by an enthusiast on another forum.

I was posting pictures of my great-great-grandfathers World War 1 memorabilia, and among these things (consisting mainly of small notes granting leave for him to travel to Bordeaux for a day or two) was a straight razor that I can only surmise he purchased in England while traveling to France.

As one might expect for something as old as WW1-era, the razor is in ghastly condition, and I was wondering if it was even worth attempting to restore it. I see your guides on how to restore old razors, but my initial question really is: "Is it worth the effort?"

Here are the pictures (assuming I did this right) and you can see the damage time has wrought. Is there any hope for this one? Or is it beyond salvage? I should mention that it still has (what I assume to be) the original cardboard box.

For the curious, that canvas sack thing in the background is either a gas mask bag or a haversack, with my predecessors name written on it. Behind that is my ugly bed quilt.

I have seen worse turned into things of beauty. Will you do the restore yourself ?

One thing I have read many times on this forum is the question of " how much does it mean to you to put either the effort or the cash out to restore the razor .

My opinion is if I had a piece of my families history I would have a restore done by someone here and shave with that puppy.


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=34.679744,135.573878

If I had my great-great-grandfathers razor, money would be no object to restore a part of my families history.
But that's just me.
A great find even if you don't restore it.

If it were me, restoring it myself would mean more, since you have to take the time and effort to do it.

But I would not make it my first restore. I would get another cheap razor and do it first then you should have enough experience to do it yourself. Be careful though it is addicting. If you don't plan on getting into straights I would pay and have one of the pro's here do it.

I'm comforted to hear that it is not as far gone as I thought it might be. If this is the case, I think I will have it restored (either by my hand or by someone elses) and see where things take me. I see a wealth of threads and information in this forum, and will start there. Thanks all!

Fish, big grats on the find. An ancestor's razor would be big medicine to me, and although I dabble in resto, that would be one I'd want to have done by a pro. There are a number of good ones. PM me if interested in whom I've used.

Resto has its satisfaction, but that razor has a lot of meaning and memories. If you plan to shave w/ it - that would seem very cool, though I'd probably do my learning on a less valuable blade. If its gonna be a wall-hanger, let the resto pro know that and get instructions for safe preservation. I vote shave w/ it!

Again, congrats.