1st straight - what have I got?

[cpool222]

A friend of my father gave me this straight... I've been using safety razors for years, but this is my first straight, so I'm hoping you guys can tell me a little about it and whether it's worth trying to clean/sharpen up. As you see, the handle has some sort of bird engraved on it, don't know what the handle is made of? The blade says T MAHFOUZ and has some scroll-work on each side of that word/s. Close to the handle it says T. MAHFOUZ and N Y underneath that. On the other side of the blade, however, close to the handle it says "Germany 92". The whole thing looks like it needs to be cleaned and shined, but I don't know how to do so without causing some problems with it potentially, so again, I'm asking for the help of the group. Thanks

 

[Doc226]

You have trouble.
There is some pitting near the edge, there is ton of hone wear, there is a frown, the bevel is ridding up the stabilizer.
The scales are pretty and you would be better off getting a different razor to start you straight journey with.

 

[Gamma]

You have a challenge.

If it was free - and you have no attachment to it as an heirloom or whatever, it's as good a choice as any for a first resto project.

I woldn't pay to have it restored to have/use as a first razor. Not worth the investment IMO.
You might be able to send it to Whipped Dog in trade toward a new sight unseen though.

 

[cb91710]

You have trouble.
There is some pitting near the edge, there is ton of hone wear, there is a frown, the bevel is ridding up the stabilizer.
The scales are pretty and you would be better off getting a different razor to start you straight journey with.

Agreed.

It's not often that we see a straight that is honestly "worn out", but that one would qualify.
I'd say there has been at least 3/16" and possibly 1/4" honed off of that edge judging by the engraving, which would not normally go all the way to the bevel, and it appears that some engraving is actually missing having been honed out.

Adding the frown... it's not something that would be worthwhile for you to attempt to restore having no experience.
Someone like Doc could spend a few hours on it and whip it into shape, but it's going to come at the cost of even more blade width.

 

[Gamma]

You don't need to be an experienced restorer to fix that up so it shaves - and there's no better way to learn how to restore a razor than by working on something where there's no investment to lose.
20 min on a DMT and it'll probably be fine.
It'll never be pretty - and if it isn't complete swiss cheese through and through, an hour well spent will yield a shaver.

 

[cpool222]

Thanks for the info guys, even though it's not good news. I'm not sure that I want to shave with it, but there is some sentimental value to it as it was given by a friend of the family, so I'd definitely like to clean it up as good as possible, any suggestions for me?

 

[Gamma]

A little work and it'll shave just fine.
To clean it well - it should be unpinned and sanded then polished up.

 

[rickboone1]

It's not that bad. Unpin it and sand it to the shine you want then send it to me. I will get you shaving with it. It may not win the beauty contests of the year but who cares. Will be a good shaving blade. Not bad at all really.

 

[Slash McCoy]

It can be made to shave. Not prime material for restoration but it can be cleaned up straightened up and honed up. Forget about the blade etching and understand that wear on the spine will be significant if you want to keep a reasonable bevel angle.

 

[cpool222]

Ok, please be more specific about the sanding... thanks again

 

[atlanta_hoo]

The other option is to save the scales and find a blade with less wear to replace the one that you have. You can save that blade for the future as you learn more about honing.

 

[Slash McCoy]

Ok, please be more specific about the sanding... thanks again

Some of the blade etching may be salvageable, if that is important to you. The more etching you want to save, the finer paper you should start with. Normally I would start with about 220 grit with that blade, myself. Simply fold a small piece and pinch the blade between the folds, and draw it back and forth through the folded sandpaper. Keep your hand behind the spine, not in front of the edge, or you may find how badly a dull razor can cut a hand. Simply keep going until you have removed all the rust and pitting that you want to remove. It must all be done during the first stage. Subsequent stages merely remove the scratches you make with the first one, and can do little to remove what should have been removed already. Sanding is a progression based operation. The initial stage does all the real work. After that, each stage simply obliterates the scratches of the previous stage and replaces them with its own finer scratches. Each stage must do its job completely, because further stages simply can't do it in any reasonable time frame. Lack of patience for this is almost universal and almost ensures poor results. Be one of the few, who get it right the first time, and not one of the many, who don't listen and think they know better and always think "this is good enough" when they get bored or impatient. If you exercise patience and discipline you can achieve stunning results. Otherwise, mediocre or poor results.

So, let's say you begin with 220 grit. You would then progress through 320, 400, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 grit. The last two you won't find at Home Depot. Visit AutoZone for finer grit papers. They even had 3000 grit last time I was there.

After hand sanding, you can further polish the blade with diamond paste. If you follow 2000 grit paper, start with 3u diamond paste. Then 1u, .5u, .25u, .1u or stop whenever you are satisfied. If you finish sand with 3000 grit, you can start with 1u diamond paste. You can rub it with a small piece of old tshirt, or use a dremel and a cloth or felt wheel at a fairly low speed. Be advised that Dremels have destroyed many a razor, by catching the edge or a corner and either breaking or cracking it, or flinging it across the room. DO NOT FORGET TO USE EYE PROTECTION when operating any power tools, especially the diabolical Dremel or its ilk.

One thing that concerns me about that blade is that it has been very heavily worn, so that the stabilizer now intrudes into the honing plane. The bulk of the stabilizer presents a lot of steel, imbalancing the wear on the blade that normal honing should be applying in a balanced fashion. So, the blade is taking a taper. For best results, that stabilizer would be ground down a bit, or even completely ground away. For a very plain and unadorned blade that you just want to shave with, you could simply remove the heel and fair the blade into the tang for a shoulderless razor, sort of like how many of us modify Gold Dollars. Simply thinning down the stabilizer is more exacting work. The blade CAN be honed without doing all that, but eventually it will likely develop a frown and become more of a problem and harder to hone properly. This won't happen overnight or anything, but will be a progressive thing over years rather than weeks or months. So, ignoring it for now is an option.

The suggestion to simply salvage the scales does have some merit. You want to remove the scales for heavy sanding and polishing, anyway. Wrap electrical tape around the entire razor and file off the head of the pivot pin filing slightly down into the washer, then carefully draw it out the other way. The tape will protect the scales form any slips of the file.

Some guys put a blade such as yours in a tumbler. If you know anyone who has a gemstone tumbler, that might be an option. I think you still need to sand the pitting out first, though.

 

[cpool222]

Thanks so much for the info... I'll start working on it, and rickboone1 I really appreciate your offer to help me out with it, let me get a start on it and I'll check back. Again, thanks for all the expert opinions and assistance.
Cleave