Beau Brummel 5/8 Full Hollow restoration

[king]

Another one restore for customer (razor arrive without scales and with broken tip):

Before:

Pin hole reduction to 1,6 mm:

Repaired tip (customer wants it to be roundish one):

New scales:

Finally (customer wants satin finished blade)

 

[Guest]

That's not a restoration, that's a massive customisation. This is a restoration. Like the Otto Deutsch line, the Brummels are beautiful, stylish pieces of art in their original state. This one here looks like another soulless, lifeless piece of "everyone's using wood in unbalanced shapes so why not me". A massive thumbs down for turning this razor into a fruit knife.

 

[king]

That's not a restoration, that's a massive customisation. This is a restoration. Like the Otto Deutsch line, the Brummels are beautiful, stylish pieces of art in their original state. This one here looks like another soulless, lifeless piece of "everyone's using wood in unbalanced shapes so why not me". A massive thumbs down for turning this razor into a fruit knife.

I am 100% on your side that this is customisation and not restoration (word "restoration" is commonly used for such job so I use it also).
On the other side, customer is happy because he recived what he wants for his money and I am only the one who realized the wishes.
Finally, my personal oppinion about this blade (Brummel) is quite opposite than yours (I do not see any beauty and stylish in this blade except "brut de forge" tang) but that's just my oppinion and my taste.

 

[decraew]

Given that the tip was broken off you did not have a lot of options, I would have done the same thing (=rounded the tip).

However, I agree with Robin on the scales, those you made in your other post look better. They look a bit bland to be honest. Not that I would necessarily do better, it's just hard to get a decent curvature and finishing on scales. For instance, the edges of the scales are fairly straight: either a bevel or a gentle rounding would have been better I think.

BUT, if your customer is pleased ...

 

[Guest]

I don't get the point of this thread. Okay, so some vendor finds some customer who, apart from his willingness to part with his money, has complete lack of taste as his characteristic feature. But this isn't some show and brag corner of the internet as far as I know, but a subforum for the discussion of the restoration of razors. One, I might add, where I have found more than a few useful tips and ideas.

As for the razor, you might want to clue yourself up about the historic background of Beau Brummel. The razors were top-of-the-line Bresnick products, as witnessed by the three pin scales, silver inlays, and dandy (some would say toff) design.

So, if your customer is happy that he got what he wanted, and you are happy that you got the money you wanted, that's fantastic for the two of you. But that razor looks like the proverbial brown stuff in my opinion, and it's a damn bloody shame, because you killed a piece of cultural history for financial gain.

As an aside, your not getting the terminology right seems to be a hallmark of your sales efforts. Like calling used razors mint, or modified razors new old stock, or calling customisations restorations. I wonder why that is. I really do.

 

[king]

.....you killed a piece of cultural history for financial gain.

Exactly.....if he wanted that I cut this razor on half I will do that also....and in that case I am sure that will be someone who likes that and much more others who do not like that.

 

[decraew]

... because you killed a piece of cultural history for financial gain.

The tip was broken off! 't Was already dead, deceased, gone to meet it's maker, pushing up daisies etc...
At that point, it doesn't matter a lot now does it ? At least someone will still shave with it.

 

[tat2Ralfy]

This all comes down to personal preference in my opinion.

For my tastes the original is far far superior, I wouldnt dream of taking my Otto Deutsch or Globusman and making them look like this, I would scour the earth in search of replacement scales, and if that failed I would use a material more suited to their pedigree, and refinish the blades accordingly.

However thats just me, and as said the razor was broken, and scaleless, the customer asked for a certain level of service, and received just that, and now it will hopefully continue to do the job it was designed to do for many many years to come.

We have a saying in the Tattoo trade "you pick it, I'll stick it" whilst its not our job to be the Tattoo style police, we will ensure that we do the best job we possibly can, and quite often we get requests for work that we simply refuse to do.

Like I said, personal preference.

Regards
Ralfson (Dr)

 

[torbenbp]

Personally I do not appreciate the the choice of scale material/wood type. But they are very well crafted.
As the original scales were absent...well this is an alternative,and most likely one your customer asked for.

This is a almost religious problem: Should we by all means bring razors back to their original state or should they reflect the time we live in? I`ve had a few razors that were modified ages ago,should theese be considered as original? I think not,but their origin is untrackable though quite interresting historycaly.

After doing some pretty terrible restorations/scales I do tend to go for "as original as possible". But once again,it`s a personal preference.

Most kindly
Torbs

 

[Guest]

There are millions of razors out there, but only a few really stand out, because they were not designed as tools but rather as statements of art. The Deutsch and Brummel brands being two of these. If you want to plonk driftwood onto some no name blade that was probably used by barbers in their shops, why not? But for a razor like this one, it's simply tasteless.

I wrote "Historical amnesia, or why LSD and scale making do not mix well" with certain US based costume scale makers in mind (the candy stripe swirl bowling ball brigade), but it works for wood as well.