Post-1924 T.R. Cadman "Bengall" Restoration

[rbscebu]

I was chatting with an Italian friend of mine, Silvano, a few weeks ago. As men often do, we got onto the subject of shaving. Silvano brought out an old SR that his father use to use. I inspected it and found that it was a post-1924 "Bengall" that had been rescaled.

Due to Silvamo's sentimental attachment to this razor, I offered to try and clean it up a bit for him. The SR was given to me like this.

​

I unbolted the the balde from its fence-paling like scales (the spacer was an oversized hex nut) and de-oxidised it with 8% vinigar and a ball of scrunched up aluminium alloy foil. I then filled the rather large pivot pin hole with expoy-weld and redrilled the hole to ∅1.6mm.

It was then onto the W&D to clean things up. I started with 600 to 800, 1k and finally 2k before a polish with Autosol.

​

I didn't want to take the polishing any further as I was starting to lose the blade's face etching.

Fortunately I had a set of OEM scales for this SR so rescaled it. The finished job doesn't look to shabby to me.

​

This morning while in town, I visited Silvano at the local aged care facility where he lives (he has no family left to look after him) and showed him my handiwork. I forgot to take a photo of the the joy on his face when he saw his late farther's razor.

Silvano now wants me to teach him how to shave with this razor, just like his father use to shave.

Silvano brought out an old small whetstone that his father use to use. It was some Scottish thing named "Water of Ayr". Looks like it might be okay to maintain the blade's edge on.

Anyway, I will now hone this SR up to shave-ready and start Silvano off in the gentlemanly art.

 

[Legion]

I was chatting with an Italian friend of mine, Silvano, a few weeks ago. As men often do, we got onto the subject of shaving. Silvano brought out an old SR that his father use to use. I inspected it and found that it was a post-1924 "Bengall" that had been rescaled.

Due to Silvamo's sentimental attachment to this razor, I offered to try and clean it up a bit for him. The SR was given to me like this.

View attachment 1695749
View attachment 1695748
​

I unbolted the the balde from its fence-paling like scales (the spacer was an oversized hex nut) and de-oxidised it with 8% vinigar and a ball of scrunched up aluminium alloy foil. I then filled the rather large pivot pin hole with expoy-weld and redrilled the hole to ∅1.6mm.

It was then onto the W&D to clean things up. I started with 600 to 800, 1k and finally 2k before a polish with Autosol.

View attachment 1695753
View attachment 1695752
​

I didn't want to take the polishing any further as I was starting to lose the blade's face etching.

Fortunately I had a set of OEM scales for this SR so rescaled it. The finished job doesn't look to shabby to me.

View attachment 1695756
View attachment 1695755
​

This morning while in town, I visited Silvano at the local aged care facility where he lives (he has no family left to look after him) and showed him my handiwork. I forgot to take a photo of the the joy on his face when he saw his late farther's razor.

Silvano now wants me to teach him how to shave with this razor, just like his father use to shave.

Silvano brought out an old small whetstone that his father use to use. It was some Scottish thing named "Water of Ayr". Looks like it might be okay to maintain the blade's edge on.

Anyway, I will now hone this SR up to shave-ready and start Silvano off in the gentlemanly art.

Water of Ayr stones are very good finishers, and traditionally fairly expensive (until a glut of them saturated the market recently, but that's another story.) Good stones.

 

[McCracken]

I was chatting with an Italian friend of mine, Silvano, a few weeks ago. As men often do, we got onto the subject of shaving. Silvano brought out an old SR that his father use to use. I inspected it and found that it was a post-1924 "Bengall" that had been rescaled.

Due to Silvamo's sentimental attachment to this razor, I offered to try and clean it up a bit for him. The SR was given to me like this.

View attachment 1695749
View attachment 1695748
​

I unbolted the the balde from its fence-paling like scales (the spacer was an oversized hex nut) and de-oxidised it with 8% vinigar and a ball of scrunched up aluminium alloy foil. I then filled the rather large pivot pin hole with expoy-weld and redrilled the hole to ∅1.6mm.

It was then onto the W&D to clean things up. I started with 600 to 800, 1k and finally 2k before a polish with Autosol.

View attachment 1695753
View attachment 1695752
​

I didn't want to take the polishing any further as I was starting to lose the blade's face etching.

Fortunately I had a set of OEM scales for this SR so rescaled it. The finished job doesn't look to shabby to me.

View attachment 1695756
View attachment 1695755
​

This morning while in town, I visited Silvano at the local aged care facility where he lives (he has no family left to look after him) and showed him my handiwork. I forgot to take a photo of the the joy on his face when he saw his late farther's razor.

Silvano now wants me to teach him how to shave with this razor, just like his father use to shave.

Silvano brought out an old small whetstone that his father use to use. It was some Scottish thing named "Water of Ayr". Looks like it might be okay to maintain the blade's edge on.

Anyway, I will now hone this SR up to shave-ready and start Silvano off in the gentlemanly art.

That's a great thing you did for your friend. We could all use a couple more friends like you.

 

[Jakebullet]

Great read and project