To polish or not to polish?

[ScottChapin]

I'd go further: Polish and get rid of the plastic scales.
That razor deserves better. The idea of keeping as original, only makes sense if you are looking at a grand masterpiece whose restoration can not match the skills of the original maker. Otherwise, it is silly.
What you want is a beautiful razor. Sure a nice etching is nice, but so is a perfectly polished blade.
Plastic might have been cool when it was the new age material that will enable us to conquer space, but now it is just cheap and tacky.

It could be sentimental.


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[RenoRichard]

sorry, Arne, I can see active rust and you need to remove the rust to stop it, I had the same choice as yourself lose the etching or keep the rust and I had to remove the rust to save the razor...

+1- Any active rust has to be dealt with, etching or no etching. I'd use steel wool and then hand polish first to see if I could stop any damage and save the etching. If not, it's the Dremel. ERNs are usually excellent shavers, IMO a bit above the average vintage Solingen. One is in my rotation.

 

[stone and strop]

I would polish it. The rust needs to be stopped.
If it were a perfect specimen I would be selective in the polishing but this one is clearly missing some steel on the backside at the stabilizer so you could tidy that up as well without worry of it not being perfect.
I'm sure it will be a great shaver either way.

 

[Suhrim21]

I rummaged through my restoration drawer and found this very nice ERN that I can't make up my mind about. I can't date it exactly but my guess is that it is made before 1914. As you can see it seems to be unused and it has got an, in my opinion, very nice etching on both sides of the blade. However the etching has got water stains. What would you do?

• Polish the blade and remove both the stains and the etching.
• Leave the blade as it is.

I can't seem to be able to make up my mind. It would be a shame to remove the etching, but then again I'm the type of guy that keep everything I own in perfect condition.
View attachment 1103991View attachment 1103992

I say no polish. I personally do not like high polished blades. Every once in a while a blade looks good polished, but that is few and far in between. For example I restored a beau Brummel no 35. I went wild with the scales but the blade I sanded the bits of rust and did a light sand on the whole blade. The blade to me has so much character and looks great.

 

[Polarbeard]

Thank You all Gentlemen . Your answers are kind and all suggestions are great. I'll need to think it all over. Probably I'll do what I can with minimal damage to the etching and then stop and concider the next step depending on the outcome.

 

[RumpleBearskin]

Chiming in late, but I agree that there is rust that needs to go. It's not a matter of aesthetics at this point, it's about repairing the blade to prevent further damage.

Once the rust is gone, then see what you have and make the aesthetics call from there.

 

[KW Driver]

without active rust, I'd leave it be. maybe a decent layer of Renaissance wax off the edge and spine.

but I'm ok with patina that's earned.

 

[Jnatcat]

I opt for all original if possible, if scales are original and in good shape just polish after doing the blade restore and pin back up