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I bought two vintage straights. Did I do good?

I went antiquing with my wife. I got these two straights for $10. The Henckle has a cracked scale. The other is a Boker. I like the scales even if they are yellowed from age. I thought the blades could be bright back. What do you guys think? Restorable or junk?
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Yup, nice find. That will all buff out, well may be not all.

But they will make good shavers, you may have to live with some pitting.

Hose them down with WD40, scrub with a toothbrush, 000 steel wool on the blades to remove all the surface rust and paper towel wrapped wood coffee stir stick to clean the muck between the scales, it will all come out may take a couple tries.

Then another soak in hot water and Simple Green or any good degreaser. Try to get the muck from out of the crack, may take some soaking in 50% degreaser and more scrubbing. Once clean wick in some thin CA glue and a spring clamp, you might need to glue the scale to the wedge, not the end of the world.

Polish the blades and remove any flash rust with0000 steel wool and any good metal polish. Then hone em up with tape and shave. Cake.
 
Great job!! The restoration techniques mentioned above will do the job just great, if you don't know how to hone, just do the mentioned restoration and mail to Maggards or someone else. Don't Mail for sharpening before you clean them up yourself or it'll cost more and they may just say no to sharpening without that first. It's easy to do.

Measure them and learn on the larger one, looks like you might have a 5/8 and a 9/16 or smaller.

They're both great brands and great razors to shave with, guaranteed quality out of henckels and boker

Also I agree with poster above, people suggest killing the point for learners but **** that, the point comes in handy once you find your way with straight
 
Great job!! The restoration techniques mentioned above will do the job just great, if you don't know how to hone, just do the mentioned restoration and mail to Maggards or someone else. Don't Mail for sharpening before you clean them up yourself or it'll cost more and they may just say no to sharpening without that first. It's easy to do.

Measure them and learn on the larger one, looks like you might have a 5/8 and a 9/16 or smaller.

They're both great brands and great razors to shave with, guaranteed quality out of henckels and boker

Also I agree with poster above, people suggest killing the point for learners but **** that, the point comes in handy once you find your way with straight
Thanks for the tips. I have been dabbling in straight razor shaving since March. I have a Dovo Bismark straight, diamond basted balsa wood strops, and lapping film. I think I will keep the points sharp.
 
Yup, nice find. That will all buff out, well may be not all.

But they will make good shavers, you may have to live with some pitting.

Hose them down with WD40, scrub with a toothbrush, 000 steel wool on the blades to remove all the surface rust and paper towel wrapped wood coffee stir stick to clean the muck between the scales, it will all come out may take a couple tries.

Then another soak in hot water and Simple Green or any good degreaser. Try to get the muck from out of the crack, may take some soaking in 50% degreaser and more scrubbing. Once clean wick in some thin CA glue and a spring clamp, you might need to glue the scale to the wedge, not the end of the world.

Polish the blades and remove any flash rust with0000 steel wool and any good metal polish. Then hone em up with tape and shave. Cake.
What product do you use to polish?
 
I like Mothers, 3M Marine or Maas. Maas as a finish polish. 3M marine is really good but a large tub goes bad. Have had 2 tubs go bad. Next one I will decant a small amount and seal the original well, it is good stuff aggressive and high polish. My shop gets over 100 degrees.

I have used Flitz, Semi Chrome , Autosol and they are all about the same.

If you have deep stain, you can hand sand with 1000 grit wet and dry and a wine cork I like synthetic cork, flat ends and it will polish up to a high shine easily with metal polish and 0000 steel wool.

Work on a 9X11 6mm craft foam pad, any craft store, covered with a paper towel to contain the mess. The foam will compress and burry the edge into the foam so you will not cut yourself. Change towels when you polish so you don’t scratch you work with rust.
 

Ravenonrock

I shaved the pig
Keepers! Nice score for a tenner. Those are pristine compared to some of the beauties that have come my way. Hopefully all will work out and they will be fine shavers and a nice addition to the stable. Well done!
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
Congratulations on a pretty good score, for that kind of money. The Boker will need some serious steel removal but I like the shoulderless blade. The Henckel can be rescaled easy enough. Usually glue doesn't hold but try it.
 
OK so for ten dollars you can go wrong. Both your razors are fine German made 'Solingens'.

The top one has significant hone wear, but it should still shave fine. It has some pitting on the bevel so it will ned a bit of work to be made shave ready.

The bottom one looks fine too. I recommend having them both unpinned so that you can remove any oxidation under the scales.

They may be a little tricky when if used as learner razors because of the square points. Newbies, myself included, tend to stab themselves with the toe.
 

Legion

Staff member
OK so for ten dollars you can go wrong. Both your razors are fine German made 'Solingens'.

The top one has significant hone wear, but it should still shave fine. It has some pitting on the bevel so it will ned a bit of work to be made shave ready.

The bottom one looks fine too. I recommend having them both unpinned so that you can remove any oxidation under the scales.

They may be a little tricky when if used as learner razors because of the square points. Newbies, myself included, tend to stab themselves with the toe.
Should be OK. Both those spikes look like they have been muted.
 
"The Boker will need some serious steel removal"

Tough to say from a photo. Maybe not, do not rush in with low grit stones.

Put a layer of tape on it and do a few laps with a 1k stone and see how bad/deep the pitting on the Boker is at the edge. Then decide how aggressive you will need to be.

I have removed what appeared to be much worst pitting and chipping from an edge with very little edge loss. Take your time with them, yes they were a bargain, but both can be great shavers

Do you have stones?
 
"The Boker will need some serious steel removal"

Tough to say from a photo. Maybe not, do not rush in with low grit stones.

Put a layer of tape on it and do a few laps with a 1k stone and see how bad/deep the pitting on the Boker is at the edge. Then decide how aggressive you will need to be.

I have removed what appeared to be much worst pitting and chipping from an edge with very little edge loss. Take your time with them, yes they were a bargain, but both can be great shavers

Do you have stones?
I have lapping film and diamond pasted balsa strops and a starter Illinois razor strop.
 
I have lapping film and diamond pasted balsa strops and a starter Illinois razor strop.
Works the same, start with 15 micron and see what happens after 20 laps with a taped edge. If the pitting starts to disappear and the edge stays straight, assess if you need 20 more, or if you need to go down in grit to do some more significant steel removal. I bet you won't. It looks like a typical restoration which can be done with basic sandpaper, polish, and honing.. of course, do the rust removal and cleanup as mentioned above before honing.

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Definitely a nice score, I have a Henkels similar to that and it shaves great. As others have said, “both restorable, the Boker likely needs a bit more work.” But you will find out when you go to rehone - again quoting another poster, start around bevel setting level, see if the oxidation on the edge comes off quickly. And as another poster mentioned, you have the stabilizer on the Henkels almost down to the line of the edge, so might want to remove a bit of the heel - I like W/D for that but lapping film works too, I just prefer not to use a whetstone for fear of gouging it - 200-400 grit will do fine for the heel reshaping.
 
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