Wester Bros - worth restoring?

**Slowhand** · 09-19-2010, 06:00 AM

My wife's grandfather gave me this razor to research and clean up. He doesn't use straights, but said I could use this and keep it for my collection if I wanted. First, the description:

on one side:
Wester Bros
"Manganese" Steel

On the other:
Wester Bros
Anchor Brand
Made in Germany
Picture of an anchor in the center with a star and an arrow in its middle.

Now, the pictures:

That chip is about 1/16", so I was thinking this could go from a 11/16 (what I measured) to a 5/8 or 9/16. The toe could just be rounded off.

That's a closeup of the chip.

And, finally, some of the blemishes on the blade (the worst of them):

I was going to throw this in the tumbler tonight, and see what it looks like in a day or so. I'd like to restore this for sentimental reasons, but not sure if it would be possible or worth doing with those blemishes. Let me know what you think!

**taffy** · 09-19-2010, 11:00 AM

I would not bother working on that, though someone may chip in with more experiance than me, for me at this early stage in my honing life, i would not know where to start, i would just forget about it, my first straight i bought was one of these, and i was not too impressed with it, though again, my lack of experiance at the time may be something to do with this, if you do restore it, best of luck.

**azmark** · 09-19-2010, 11:38 AM

If it was just the chip to worry about then I would do it and take it down to a 4/8 if you're lucky. But beyond the chip it looks like oxidization which likely has pitting underneath it and you're going to probably going to have to go further because it won't take a sharp edge with it there. The scales have a cool look to them though, my kind of retro looking style.