refurbishing old razors

[John C]

Hey guys,

As some of you may have seen, I picked up an old optio german travel DE the other day.
A goodly amount of the plating is gone from the head and the surface is a bit rough.
I'm fairly handy with metal and some machiene work, and was wondering if any of ya'll have ever refurbished an old DE before?
If so, any tips or tricks?
I also do a bit of hand engraving, and wondered if, after stripping the top plate down if it would look cool to do some engraving on the top plate and then replate the whole thing.
Thoughts and comments?

John

 

[thirdeye]

Hey guys,

As some of you may have seen, I picked up an old optio german travel DE the other day.
A goodly amount of the plating is gone from the head and the surface is a bit rough.
I'm fairly handy with metal and some machiene work, and was wondering if any of ya'll have ever refurbished an old DE before?
If so, any tips or tricks?
I also do a bit of hand engraving, and wondered if, after stripping the top plate down if it would look cool to do some engraving on the top plate and then replate the whole thing.
Thoughts and comments?

John

You sure can engrave and replate....What type of finish is on the razor now?

 

[John C]

It looks to be a nickle plate with a brass handle.
I'm also curious about what the thread count is on the handle, I'm thinking of making a new handle for this little guy as well.

John

 

[Blondie]

If you have a tap and die set that is the easiest way I have found to get a good pitch for threads.

 

[John C]

If you have a tap and die set that is the easiest way I have found to get a good pitch for threads.

I've got a nice tap set, and can find the die's. I was just hoping to not have to retap the head of the razor, but that may be the easiest in the long run

 

[cooncatbob]

It looks to be a nickle plate with a brass handle.
I'm also curious about what the thread count is on the handle, I'm thinking of making a new handle for this little guy as well.

John

It's most likely either a #10-32 or the slightly larger (but same thread pitch) metric
M5X.8

 

[John C]

It's most likely either a #10-32 or the slightly larger (but same thread pitch) metric
M5X.8

That makes sense. As soon as I realised that it wasn't a 1/4-20, I thought some sort of metric.
I'll play with it tomorrow when I get to the studio.

Thanks,
John