First Str8...What now?

[Gogo]

Hey Everyone!
I've been using a DE for a couple of years now and have really got into a groove. I finally get consistently awesome shaves with little or no irritation. So what do I do? I just bought my first straight razor of course!

After much research, I found a Puma at a flea market and pulled the trigger. I would like to make it as nice as possible. My goal is to make it a great shaver. If it doesn't look mint, that might be okay. I want to be careful and not ruin the pretty gilded design.
So what is the first thing I should do to clean this up?
Maas?
Sandpaper? If so what grit?
Any other suggestions?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks so much!
Matty G

 

[norton]

I am no expert - however, I do know that the Puma is a sought after straight. Perhaps one you don't want to experiment on - looks like a very nice score.

If it were me, I would back away slowly and go to straightrazorplace and find a restoration specialist/honemeister - several posters here post there as well.

Sandpaper will crush the etching. You may not need to go that far, but someone with experience would be able to help. You may have found a diamond in the rough.

Good luck.

 

[Seraphim]

Very nice for a first razor!

Be aware that simple polish will whisk away the gold etch on the blade in about two swipes. Really.

Get it honed and shave with it as-is is my vote!

 

[crankymoose]

Wow that's a real nice find, it don't look like it will much in the way of cleaning up, check out the top of the honing forum there is a list of honemeisters some of which do restores even if you don't get them to restore it they could at least tell you how. Those are very sought after razors real nice shavers especially finding one in that good of condition.

 

[netsurfr]

Great find for your first shaver. Get it honed by a pro and enjoy it.

 

[ScottS]

Looks pretty clean already. If you try and polish it, you should avoid the gold wash, or it might well come off. I'd just send it to a honemeister, get yourself a strop, and start shaving.

 

[Gogo]

Thanks guys. I probably ought to just not worry too much about the aesthetics. However, there are a lot of black marks on both sides of the blade. They didn't turn up well on the photograph. They don't look great, so what do you recommend I do about it, if anything?

 

[rsrick]

From what I can tell in the pictures, the side with the etching looks to be in good shape, the flip side appears to have some tarnish but nothing too horrible. You can try a bit of Maas on that side (do a small area first) to see if it will buff out easily. If so, work on the whole side (note, I'd recommend doing this by hand .... keep the dremel in the drawer). On the etched side, unless you want to make the gold wash to disappear, you can use a bit of polish and a q-tip to work around things.

If it were mine, I wouldn't worry too much about making it a beautiful looking blade but rather concentrate on making it a beautiful shaving blade. Get it honed up and have fun with it!

Cheers,

 

[jlander]

Puma's are OUTSTANDING blades. The gold wash on the blade is pretty, but I wouldn't worry about it if it were mine. I had one similar to that that I sent to Bill Ellis to restore and true the edge. It came back with no gold wash on the blade, but was very easy to touch up and a monster shaver!

Congratulations on a fine first shaver!!

 

[kestrel]

I don't think you need to worry too much about making that a pretty razor - it already is a pretty razor. If I were you I'd get it clean and shaving sharp and start using it. Some very careful work with a bit of 1000k sandpaper followed by Flitz, or possibly white jeweller's paste, would at least make a start on the staining on the reverse side. The gold wash looks salvageable and certainly worth the trouble. Whatever you do be careful and go slowly; it's too beautiful a razor to take chances with.

Best Regards

Graham