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Found 3 in the wild

These straights are a bit of a mess, but I think 1 or 2 might be salvaged. I'm here to let the pros weigh in. Do I have anything nice on my hands, or just a hot mess of steel and plastic? :)
Thanks,
~B
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There is a Charles Slateray's Peruvian Steel Sheffield scaled in 1-piece wood. The biggest of the three.
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The "Carbo Magnetic" Griffon is pretty banged up and the scales are throw-away, but I wanted something to practice cleaning up, and the etching was too cool to pass up! So for $6, I picked it up.
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Then there's the C.C. Simmons Keen Kutter from... wait for it... Simmons Hardware in a really nice celluloid set of scales. The spine on that blade has a really cool "hand hammered" looking pattern on it.
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All are very salvageable. The Charles Slateray I would guess is pretty old by the stubby tang but I can't be sure.
 
i agree, all can be "saved" as they aren't in bad condition to begin with. just not in really great condition. the simmons looks kinda small and rough.
 
I like the etching on the carbo magnetic. Scales don't look to bad from what I can see, are there cracks/damage? Stinks about the chip in the point but you may be able to mute the spike from the chip and have a good shaver.
 
They all look like they can be salvaged. They've all got some chipping on the edges that would have to be honed out and they need some cleaning.
The Slatery looks like the best of the bunch with some wear at the toe. The scales are replacements.
The large chip in the Griffon could be left as is and shaved with or you could round the toe or shorten the blade. The other chips on the edge can be honed out. The scales look like bakelite and if they're not cracked or warped you could lightly sand and polish them and they would be fine.
The Simmons can be salvaged but is a little more complicated. The hone wear and edge are uneven as well as the edge being chipped and corroded. Would require some sanding and hone work.
 
i think that they are all restorable on will have to be shortened a tad or have a barbers notch ground into it
 
You might want to get in on the (prizeless) contest on cleaning up some straights. You may win some bragging rights
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
A lot of work there. It's all about the hours you will put in, vs the value of what you end up with. As learners, they are fine. Go for it, and enjoy yourself.
 
Cool. Thanks guys.
I've already put a little elbow grease (and copious MAAS) into them, and the difference is stunning to me. I'll get some pictures up as they progress.
~B
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
Cool. Thanks guys.
I've already put a little elbow grease (and copious MAAS) into them, and the difference is stunning to me. I'll get some pictures up as they progress.
~B

If you are serious about this, unpin them and totally polish them, sanding as needed, first, before any honing. When sanding, get ALL defects out with your coarsest paper before progressing. Let your fast cutting paper do the grunt work. It takes 4 times as long with the next grit of paper, so don't get impatient about switching to finer paper. A good polisher is a dremel, on low speed with felt or cloth wheel, and diamond paste. If there is etching that you want to save, a LIGHT pass with CrOx might preserve it better. A razor polished with a dremel and finished at .25 diamond will have a very nice finish indeed, if care is taken to do a good job with each level of abrasive before going finer.

If your dremel slips and you hit the edge with the collet, you will be glad you have not straightened out the edge yet!

A very coarse stone, in the neighborhood of 200 or 300 grit, will save you a lot of work as you initially straighten out your edges. With damaged razors, don't try to spare the spine by taping! If you remove a lot of edge, you have to also remove a lot of spine, or the geometry changes. Check out the razors in your collection that shave the best. Measure the spine thickness and the blade width. You will problably find that your best shavers have a spine thickness 1/4 or slightly less than that, of the blade width. If you take 1/16" from the edge, you should expect to also lose 1/64" or so from the spine, with normal honing. With breadknifing, even without tape, there is less hone wear on the spine than normal honing, and you could increase your bevel angle significantly. A degree can make a lot of difference in a razor's shaving characteristics. So after breadknifing, as you begin to make the new bevel, make sure that there is a good balance of pressure between edge and spine on the hone. And I have come to the conclusion that while curvature of the edge is best addressed by breadknifing, ordinary honing on a very coarse stone works just fine for chips and dings, if your technique is good. You are STILL removing exactly the same steel from the edge, either way. Regular honing is more likely to keep spine and blade width in some sort of balance.
 
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