Gillette Old Type restore before /after

[ReapersBlade]

Best part is that she'll be loved for years.

 

[mgbbrown]

Restoration type has been a long-standing point of contention between the automotive conservators (or perhaps the British use as a sympathetic restoration as preservation), and those who desire just something pretty if you will. There is the reconstructive restoration class, whose goal is not to over-restore, but to return it to as factory-new as possible. Research determines the technique and materials used, but it will go only as far as what is ultimately allowed by the customer. Hill and Vaughn were well noted for this type of work, and fielded many a Packard to the grounds of Pebble Beach. The 1965 Masten Gregory, Jochen Rindt LM Le Mans winner pictured, was dented in the forward right fender well and suffered minor stone chipping on the lip of the bonnet, but this was sympathetically restored to exactly as it left the factory at Maranello. The interior was left to as raced. This is fitting for arguably one of the most significant and valuable Ferraris built. From the photographs of your beautiful razors and pens- you are as much a conservator as a steward, and that is both admirable and what you desire in collecting them. I am sure that the original poster was not aware of his misuse of the term, or guided by anything more lofty than removing decades of soap scum and detritus so he can use it, and to that end, putting some elbow grease into making it shiny again. I will be receiving an NOS WWII Contract Tech in the next few days that will be conserved and kept as found, with absolutely no intent for anything more. I understand your point, and have defended it in my own sympathetic restoration of a lowly historic SCCA rally MGB. Once restored, it will be driven. No garage jewelry I assure you. God Bless! Tony Brown RN mgbbrown

 

[gitira6]

Not that it doesn't look better, but calling it a restoration is beyond me. Restoring an antique is not stripping it down to bare material ... furniture, jewelry, and razors. To restore is making it look like factory new again, sympathetically, not a customization.

The judges at Pebble Beach would not even let you near the lawn if you stripped the red paint off a '65 Ferrari 250 LM.
This is my opinion from my conservator's point of view, not meant to offend.

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I have been doing some reading on this, and was set back a little by the reply. I have never conserved an antique as is or restored any antiques. I have used the term restore in the wrong context, after reading about this, and I am fairly new to antiques, and would like to get into it as a hobby. I see where you are coming from, but I guess there are alot of people that dont know antiquing, and how stripping finishes degrades it. I have an awesome antique store not far away, and I look at other stuff too. Just by watching Mecums on tv, they expand on this topic.

 

[Graybeard57]

Very nicely done.

 

[Bookworm]

My family operates in the following manner. Antique or not, if you can't use it for the intended purpose, it's junk, trash, or wall art. Thus, you owe it to the creator and the item to do whatever is necessary to make it usable again. If the paint looks like it drove behind a sand truck for 15 years, you _take the paint off_ and repaint it. Why? Because you'll get a better paint job with the old paint removed. If it's dented, you bang the dent out. If the metal is torn, you weld it, or replace the panel.

People are strange. They'll go ape about a Louis XIV chair, and not realize that two legs, one arm, the upholstry, and half the back have been replaced a dozen time since the original chair was built - hotels and large facilities such as palaces had their own woodworkers on-site to repair furniture, etc. My Grandfather's Axe.

If I get a razor that is showing the underlying nickel/brass/steel/zinc more than anything else, having it replated is not sacrilege. It's restoring functionality to what was becoming trash.

Now, that said, I believe that there's restoring to as close to factory condition as possible, and then there's restoring to most efficient use. For a car, the former might only have an AM radio, a dynamo/generator/rectifier combination, and the ugliest wiring known to man, using bias-ply tires. The latter might have a modern alternator, battery, starter, and a flip open satellite/MP3 radio, with a suspension tuned to use steel belted radials. They're both the same car, just tuned for different purposes. One for show, one for use.

 

[mgbbrown]

I was fortunate enough to find a V3 Super Speed razor. I use all of my razors save one for now (It is a boxed WWII Contract Tech which I received in the mail today), but like Bookworm, I own to use, so my vow to not use it may not make it past tomorrow night. After all, one pass to experience a very historically significant razor will do absolutely nothing to degrade the still historically significant razor. The V3 immediately went to Cap for a necessary repair of the center bar and then on to Chris Evatt for a re-plate- without even a second thought. It remains a wonderful shaver that I use regularly. And like my MGB, the work was done to be driven.

The car will be painted in a modern, single stage Glasurit urethane because a hobbyist can paint it himself and buff it down to perfection- it also takes a beating. It originally came with an inverted spin-on oil canister, which cannot be removed without first wrapping it in a plastic bag, and even that is an iffy proposition as far as getting oil from one end of creation to the other. Foolish me first restored the canister (when I started, I was bent on originality), then sense prevailed to convert it to a spin-on filter that the MG factory in Abingdon did three years later anyway (that was what was on the car- it is being restored now as the rally and autocross car it actually was in period). And yes, it still has the ugliest wiring known to man.

As for antiques- I have a pit-sawed dowry chest dating to around the mid 1600's. It is as plain as it gets, in part due to its origins, but like that Louis XIV chair- the feet and lower skirt were replaced, I am thinking, sometime towards the end of the 18th century with Chippendale ones. Is it less valuable? Perhaps, but we store blankets in it.

Gitera 6- Please enjoy your razor. It is a good looking piece that was meant to be used. Gillette made a gazillion of them, and if it were found in its shipping box, unused and with all of its literature and perfectly preserved- that would be a different story. Besides- my MGB was first owned by a drug dealer from Ohio who was busted in Oxford about twelve miles or so from where we live now. The car had green shag carpet covering the entire interior except for the gauges. Now that would look great at a car show... God Bless! Tony Brown RN mgbbrown

 

[gitira6]

I'm definately using it, but I use the New Improved more, I find it a little smoother, its also my favorite vintage. Thanks for the replies. I'll still buy 'em, clean 'em, and use them, believe me. Its all part of the hobby.