Advise for a Noob - Restoring a 19th Cen. Mappin Brothers full wedge

[Ryan_Berling]

I had my eye out for a vintage straight razor for awhile, and armed with the little knowledge I gathered, I discovered this little beauty. I was mainly looking for good steal, the country or city of origin. I knew I had a winner in Sheffield. I had heard that thinner razors were easier for beginners, but I couldn’t deny the weight/quality of the Mappin Sun Razor.

With all my extra free time, living in our current reality... I plan to restore this razor for personal use, and I am looking for advise. This site is a wealth of general knowledge, but I was curious to listen to the feed back from others that have gone through the process before. The blade has definitely seen better days, but I don’t want to ruin it by making a stupid mistake.

I’ve done a little bit of research, and I can’t find any just like this one. The brass scales /full wedge /barber’s notch.

I appreciate anything I can get.

Cheers,
Ryan

 

[kw1861]

That's a very nice razor, it should clean up great! I've never seen the brass scales on a razor, although they were popular on pocket knives from around 1845-1870. To clean up the blade, I'd use good wet/dry sandpaper, starting with 320 grit, then 400, 600, 1000. Don't shoot for a mirror finish, in my humble opinion these old razors never look quite right unless they show a little age! For the scales, I'd just use a quality metal polish such as simichrome. Then coat the brass with Renaissance wax to keep it from tarnishing. And if you think that's too complicated, I'll be happy to take it off your hands to save you the aggravation. Very nice find, can't wait to see how it turns out!

 

[Dan279]

Mappin Brothers are great blades, get that baby on the polishing wheel, before attacking with sandpaper. That will get rid of a lot of muck first.

 

[Doc226]

That is a great blade to restore. You can pretty much donas little or as much as you want.

Want a little cleanup and get it honed, excellent.

Want to go all out, sand it till the pitting is gone, excellent.

Avoid power tools unless you know what you’re doing, even on a beefy blade you can overheat the steel near the edge and blow the temper (much harder to do than on thin grinds). You can however catch the blade and fling it across the room and break it, or worse injure yourself.


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[Legion]

The brass scales are unusual. I wonder if they are some sort of trench art replacements for the originals, which would most commonly have been horn.

The pins are weird, they look flush with the scales, and might be difficult to remove and replace. If it were mine I would probably leave it all together, just buff the blade and clean it as much as I could with metal polish, then polish the scales with Brasso, Renaissance Wax them, and hone. But I'm a) lazy, and b) don't believe a 150 year old razor needs to shine like a new pin.

Anyway, it all looks in decent shape. Post picks once it is all done.

 

[Gamma]

If this is your first resto, then the less you do to it will increase your odds of not messing it up. Sanding the blade with w/d paper until the major amount of gunk is none would suffice for now.

Me, I'd pull the blade out of the scales, I'd cut the pivot pin from the inside with a piercing saw. Then I'd clean the blade, and the inside of the scales by the pivot. Then re-pin, and hone.

Honing wedges in that condition usually requires some effort beyond what may be imagined. If this would also be your first foray into that arena, then honing with tape on the spine could prove to be a wise initial decision. You can rehone without tape very easily afterwards.

 

[Ryan_Berling]

Thanks for all the advise everyone. I'll update this thread with some progress photos, and questions as they arise.

Cheers!