A little help restoring an old razor.

[towliff]

Hey guys, I have this nice looking razor I grabbed from ebay for £12. Its by george butler & co, Sheffield.

Is this one of those 'good manufacturers' or is it from the Sheffield imitation wannabees? Ive honed it before on norton synthetics and it took a brilliant edge - better infact than my attempts from my dovo which Gary honed for me a little while back (cheers Gary!). On the blade, there is a picture of Shakespeare and some writing reads "KEEN as is this razors edge invisible", underneath this it says "Shakespeare. Love's labor lost" I get the feeling this blade is quite old. Would like to put pics but dont know how to do it in this area of the cafetaria.

Anyway, this razor is smiling, quite badly at the toe. Is it possible to hone out smiles to get a straight edge back, or is this ridiculously labour intensive/not advised/impossible? I also need to take off the scales and scrub up the blade - theres a small amount of pitting from rust in the past (not affecting the edge). It also needs some work where the tang is pinned to the scales.

Ive never done this before - how do I remove the pin holding the scales on without damaging the scales? I need to slap in a washer or something because the toe of the blade catches on one side of the scales - needs opening and closing carefully! Making new scales/attaching them isn't a problem - I think I could do that pretty well - just need to find some decent wood

Any inputs would be greatly appreciated!!

James

 

[Bart]

Would like to put pics but dont know how to do it in this area of the cafetaria.

http://www.coticule.be/the-cafetaria/topic/57.html

Anyway, this razor is smiling, quite badly at the toe. Is it possible to hone out smiles to get a straight edge back, or is this ridiculously labour intensive/not advised/impossible?

These vintage razors as usually born with a smile. I would advice against removing it. Not because it's not possible, but because the smile adds both an esthetical value and a performance advantage to the razor.

So please sir, don't mutilate the razor, unless you have no other choice.

Bart.

 

[Smythe]

I think I am familiar with that auction, if it’s the same one then you have a fine razor. Though I do not have it in had to say for sure but from what I can see, there is no need to “straighten” out the curve… it’s a smile, smiling razors shave better then straight edged ones in my opinion.

But for someone new to honing it may be an issue, but not a big one. The surface of the hone is flat, but the razor is somewhat curved. If you rest the blade flat on the hone, the Point end and the Heal end of the edge may not touch the surface of the hone at the same time as the middle, in fact, you may be able to “rock” (or roll) the blade from Heel to Point and you may see those parts will then touch the surface. This is what you have to do during the honing stroke to sharpen that blade… roll the blade from Heel to Point during the stroke.
If you have not done so you may want to check the cool animated illustrations of this stroke in our Sharpening Academy.
http://www.coticule.be/strokes.html

 

[towliff]

Thanks all for the advice! Well I had a go at it last night....was ok but still not ready.

Ive realised that my hair is far far far to thin for me to be using for the HHT atm, so I used a couple from me badger brush instead today to guide how I was doing. Ive been honing since 1pm....and ive just got it to pass level 3 on the HHT with my super thin hair. This was on my main dovo razor - I'm going to get better at my honing skills before attempting the sheffield again, as its a more difficult blade to hone.

 

[Smythe]

BTW are the scales in any way warped? Look down the scales from the butt end towards the pivot.
Not a big deal if they are, it is quite easy to fix, but the warped scales may cause the blade to touch the scales while closing.

Also are you using slurry on the Coticule?...

 

[towliff]

Merry christmas!

I just checked the scales, no warping. I guess the blade is just offset a little. And i do indeed use the coticule with slurry. someone mentioned on another thread that it may even be too thick, so ill give it another go at somepoint.

 

[tat2Ralfy]

I have found that if the blade sits off center and the scales are straight, its often a case of the pivot pin being a little bent, not a problem if you remember to take care when you close it, but worth doing if its bad.