Sta-Sharp razor

[mux3102]

Hi All-

recently getting back into straight razors after a few year hiatus of never really quite getting the hang if it; anyways, traded my old razor in for a unseen swap and received this beauty in the mail last night. Having read nothing but great things about Sta-Sharps's, and since its in pretty decent shape, I wanted to reach out and see what suggestions you all could give a novice on how to bring the beauty back to this great shaver.

apologies in advance for not using the search function in the forum before asking- just really don't know where to start looking.

Thanks for any insight you all can give.

Alex

 

[Alum of Potash]

Looks pretty good to me. Pictures are hard to tell from, but it looks like the main problem might be some possible devil's spit pitting near the toe on the backside. But it seems to be pretty far away from the edge, so not a functional problem. Otherwise, for a hands-off approach, I would say wipe the blade with some kerosene or petroleum distillate on a rag to try to remove the standing red rust as pictured, then leave the blade coated with a petroleum based honing oil for a little while to see if this lifts the standing rust off further or at least converts it to black rust. Assuming it otherwise is in good shape, the rest is based on your honing skills. Probably best to send it out to an experienced honer if you're just starting out as that blade seems to have come down from posterity in pretty good shape. But if you really want to hone it yourself, find some beater razors in worse shape or GDs and practice on them first to get your licks down.

 

[Alum of Potash]

On second look, if it's cell rot, you would have another problem in that the scales would need to be replaced. Maybe someone else will chime in on this as I can't really make it out from the photos, but the pivot area near the tang in the first shot on the left is of concern to me.

 

[mux3102]

Thanks for the reply! it came sight unseen/shave ready, so was hoping to get some use out of it before killing the blade and bringing it back to life, but the red looking rust gave me a bit of pause and wanted to see what others thought. Will try and take a different shot of the pivot area around the tang tonight. appreciate the input.

 

[timwcic]

If is shave ready, use it and enjoy. It does not look like it is suffer from cell-rot. It hard to tell from the pictures, the rust is on the exposed steel. Not on the steel when closed. Looks more like improper storage and lack of oil. Every thing mentioned above is a non-intrusive fix while leaving the etch untouched

 

[mux3102]

awesome, much appreciated.