Preparing for first restore

[mikromicke]

This was pretty inevitable. Once I started using a straight I had to try to restore an old one (having made hunting knives etc before).

I just managed to get the winning bid on an old Swedish straight, Erik Anton Berg, for the low price of roughly $0.15 It's hard to tell from the images but the blade actually seems to be in decent condition and I was planning to make my own scales anyway since I have some different nice kinds of woods lying around.

Can't wait to get started on it ... It should arrive in a couple of days

 

[Alacrity59]

I've not done my own scales as yet but I've had some great fun cleaning and polishing some old straights and removing chips and eventually shaving with them. I like these things as they are fairly small projects and feedback in terms of shaving with them is quick.

I just know you will have fun.

 

[dancraig]

Speaking of wood, I just rescaled this "Tennis" in curly maple.

 

[mikromicke]

Ooh, nice

The wood I'm thinking of using is a piece of Thuja root. It's redish, very easy to work with and gets a really nice finish. I was planning to make a knife handle out of it for me wife but it might be more fun to put it on a razor

 

[dancraig]

I finished this maple with Krylon Clear Acrylic Finish-Gloss. It's quick and looks OK but I'm not sure how durable it will be.

 

[mikromicke]

Glad you told me. The finish is something I'm not sure on how to do with straights. For my knifes I usually finished with linseed oil and for other projects I've used french polishing. Neither will be good enough for a straight so I guess some kind of plastic/epoxy is the way to go?

 

[dantodd]

You should check out what they are using over at penturners.org on their wood pen blanks, I think super glue (CA) is pretty popular.

 

[mikromicke]

I just got it in the mail. It was both in better and worse shape than I had hoped for. It seems to have experienced a pretty interesting hone sometime and I could see at least three bevels on it. Part of the scales were broken, which was sad as they were in good shape otherwise, but I guess I was planning to make new anyway.

I can't see any chipping and the edge feels smooth. I guess the tricky part would be to remove the two bevels that are too far up on the blade ... or I could just leave them there although it won't look very nice.

What would you guys say about the blade? Is it worth trying to get in shape, if nothing else just for the fun of it?

 

[wdwrx]

I would suggest that that razor is at or near the end of it's usefull life. The hone wear is tremendous. It might clean up and make an OK shaver but I wouldn't expend the time, energy or money required to restore it. I'd hold out for something with a lot less wear.
At least you didn't spend a lot of money on it.
Sorry, not trying to rain on your parade, but I found that restoring a razor takes me most of a 2 day weekend (i know.. speedy gonzales I'm not) and the sense of pride I feel in it should be justified by the razor itself... something about making a silk purse out of a sow's ear come to mind.
There are a lot of beautiful old razors out there that will give you a better return on investment (labour not $ i mean, I've yet to make a penny on 'em)
IMHO, I'd keep it as is for honing practice and spend the time/labour/$ on one with a little more life left in it.

 

[mikromicke]

Thanks for the input Chris. Now I know what I'm up against

I'll probably play around with it but it's good to know that it probably isn't worth to put too many hours in it. I'll always learn something from it I guess

 

[holli4pirating]

I'd actually say, for all the reasons wdwrx stated, that razor is a good candidate for your first restore. She'll be nice when you're done, but you're not putting a nice razor at risk. Maybe she won't shave like she would have with all the steel, but EA's are really great shavers. That razor was probably on the small side to start with, anyway...

 

[mikromicke]

Very true

I'd actually say, for all the reasons wdwrx stated, that razor is a good candidate for your first restore. She'll be nice when you're done, but you're not putting a nice razor at risk. Maybe she won't shave like she would have with all the steel, but EA's are really great shavers. That razor was probably on the small side to start with, anyway...

 

[wdwrx]

I had really good luck posting on BST for some bare blades. The cost for each was about $10.00, and I had a couple of real beauties show up (and a couple not so nice)

By all means have fun, the process is a great part of the enjoyment.
There is something though, to look at a razor 100+ years old that now looks as nice or nicer than the day it was made. And shaving with it is just the icing on the cake.

Holi4pirating makes a good point. It's a good practice razor, both for honing and re-scaling. And if you do come across another blade it would be a simple matter to swap out the scales.