Thread: Restoration of Taylor "The 1000" 6/8 razor (Sheffield)

After getting into using a SR about a month ago I decided to buy by best buddy an SR. Being English, for me the only choice is a Sheffield razor. To my surprise I found a Taylor razor for sale (on ebay) still in the original box, and the printing on the inside of the box was still legible.

As my buddy's surname is Taylor (spelt the same way) I thought this was the ideal one to get. So after paying far too much for it on ebay by mistake, (typing error on my bid in the last 4 seconds of the auction after I forgot it was ending), i now had the razor.

Here are some pics of the condition when it arrived:



Not too bad a condition.




The blade fits in the scales nice and centrally




Blade shows some hone wear, but still looks quite useable.


After having a look at it, I decided it was in reasonable condition, it has a chip on the edge of the scales one side, but it has a really nice weight and feel in your hand.

I decided the things that needed doing to it were as follows:

Polishing the blade to make it look nice. This fortunately is not a problem for me as I own a polishing & chrome plating business so it only took me about 10 minutes to polish it.






I know you guys like to see pictures of workshops so here is a of snap of my polishing set up. These machines are not for the feint hearted, but get the job done quickly, and are not recommended for amateurs (unless you are not fond of your digits and limbs).

Here I have polished the blade and the scales.







The object was not to polish out every last mark as I feel this would detract from it, as it is after all, it is a vintage blade. I just wanted to make it look nice.

I also tightened the pin in the blade with a few gentle taps of a hammer on the edge of a vice, so now the scales do not flap about.



My next job is to hone this. I have a Chinese 12k stone I bought when I got my razor. I am going to give this a go and see where I get. I also do not understand the procedure after honing regarding stropping using pastes etc. Help really needed on this


I would really appreciate if anyone has an idea about the age of this razor. I believe Taylor went out of business about 1925 from what I have found from google

I've restored quite a few Taylors witness razors, but restored my first Taylors 3000 special this week, great shavers those razors. Here's a few pictures of a !000 I restored along with the 3000. We have a member over on the TSR UK shaving forum who's getting on a bit who was a blade grinder for Taylors of Sheffield, here's a link to some info that may help you. Taylor's Eye Witness Works - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jamie.