Various SR resto's

Dr Watson

James
Only got around to doing one in the end (went for the easy one!)

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You always have to decide how much metal you wish to remove, any pitting can be removed in theory but sometimes doing so will look utterly stupid IMO... I'm sure you've seen those razors for sale on eBay which some nutter has gone at with a buffer and removed half the metal, blade geometry changed, all square edges rounded etc, I hate that.... A 100+ year old razor needn't look new, a bit of character is nice, we just don't like rust and devil's spit.
 

Dr Watson

James
What a pain in the arse that was... Knew it would be. To be honest I was in two minds whether to bother with it or not, so much rust is there anything worth saving under there?

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Did what I could using only wet/dry paper and elbow grease so what could be achieved was very limited... It may be pitted but at least the pits are now shiny! :giggle:

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Anyway, it's a J. Beal & Sons of Sheffield, trademark "ENDURE" which was perhaps something of a family motto.

This particular trademark was only used between 1871-1876 so that's how old it is, not so bad considering I suppose. Interesting back story to this maker... The company was originally called J & J Beal Ltd. Their factory was Rand Moor Cutlery Works near Water Lane in Ranmoor. They began as scissor-makers in the 1790s. Peter Beal ran the factory and after his death in 1835 his widow Sarah and their son Joseph took over. A John Beal also entered the company - John died of typhus in 1846, shortly after in 1849 the company went bust and was in the hands of the Official Receiver who would have broken it up and sold it to pay creditors, but Sarah borrowed enough money to buy it back again, and the census return of 1851 shows her as being a scissor and razor maker.
 

J-B-M

Forum GOD!
It's fascinating that you have the history behind it. I wonder how many people they employed. Incredible to think that you will be shaving with something 150 years old and can perhaps name someone who handled it during it's manufacture.

A bit of pitting is okay as long as it can take a usable edge.

I know that straights are too much work for me to maintain as day to day shavers but I did enjoy bringing them back to life. Now I am getting my SR fix vicariously from this thread. I really enjoy seeing your latest acquisitions. 👍
 

Dr Watson

James
Update: Been informed by a Russian shaver that when these razors were produced the final production process was something called "thermoelectric sharpening" a tell tale sign of which is a sort of streak along the cutting edge which is what we could be looking at here... Need to get it under a loupe.
 

Dr Watson

James
Update: Been informed by a Russian shaver that when these razors were produced the final production process was something called "thermoelectric sharpening" a tell tale sign of which is a sort of streak along the cutting edge which is what we could be looking at here... Need to get it under a loupe.
Managed to sort this last night, so it wasn't a fracture at all but something else, perhaps this mysterious "thermoelectric sharpening" or something else, no telling. Either way it's cleaned up nicely, could be wrong but working with it this steel feels Swedish to me.

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Zwilling

Kamisori shaver
Wow, eBay seller's selective photography strikes again! A razor which appeared to be NOS arrives with a frown and a fracture running the entire length of the blade 😩

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On a positive note I do have one of these on the way to clean up...

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James, this kind of looks like the blade might be a layered steel, with a hard carbon steel encased in softer mild steel, with a line showing the transition between the two as the grind tapers off. This is very standard on Japanese razors, for example - but I’m just speculating.
 

Dr Watson

James
James, this kind of looks like the blade might be a layered steel, with a hard carbon steel encased in softer mild steel, with a line showing the transition between the two as the grind tapers off. This is very standard on Japanese razors, for example - but I’m just speculating.
Sorry I completely missed your comment. You could be right, I've not been able to find any definitive information on this "thermoelectric sharpening" referenced by the Russian, perhaps a translation error or something. Either way, the transition has been removed with the aid of wet/dry, whatever it was it wasn't very thick but it did appear to have been dipped or coating in something.
 

UKRob

Forum GOD!
Looks like ivory - and the scales need to be removed to really clean the tang and inside pivot otherwise the stain will show through. I’ve done this before with mostly success but one failure when the scale fractured at the pivot when re-pinning. However, that was with a set of scales that the owner supplied so there’s no knowing what number of times they’d been used before. On the occasions where I’ve removed cleaned and re-pinned there have been no issues.
 

R181

Grumpy old man
Yes, if you have not a lot of experience in unpinning and repinning ivory scales it can be a heart stopping experience. The scales, for all practical purposes, are irreplaceable should there be an oooops moment. Most ivory scales that I have seen cracked from use have been at the pins and that is where they crack during unpinnig and repinning too if not previously cracked. Ivory seems very brittle with not much give or flex.

Bob
 

Dr Watson

James
Agreed Rob, that would be ideal but I'm loath to touch the scales to be honest. I'm just an amateur hobbyist and they currently don't have so much as a single hairline crack so would be foolish IMO to mess with them for the sake of a bit of tarnish... If the razors were otherwise in superb condition then I would be sorely tempted but they're not, there's plenty of pitting anyway (a little more than anticipated actually) so a bit of tarnish around the pin isn't worth losing sleep over.
 
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