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Can this be saved?

Picked this up in a lot, looks kind of rough. I was wondering if this can be salvaged into a usable razor? It's dated to 1919 and while I know it's a frankenrazor, i'd hate to throw away a piece of history. After this picture was taken I did a 10 minute soak in scrubbing bubbles just to see what happened. It removed a little bit of the gunk but not a ton. I've heard CLR is a good product to try and was wondering what advice the forum gods had to give.

$1919.jpg
 
Soak it in a dish washing solution for a while and use a soft toothbrush to remove the gunk. Repeat if needed.
I wouldn't use aggressive cleaning solutions.
 
I'd keep working at it...I've seen some real resurrections.

I usually start by putting it (disassembled) in a coffee cup, giving it a squirt of dish soap, and pouring piping hot water over it. Let it stay there until it's cool enough to handle (15 or 20 minutes) and scrub with a toothbrush and toothpaste. Rinse it off, spray with Scrubbing Bubbles, let that sit for 5 minutes, rinse.

Do that a few times and see where you're at.
 
Theres some really good quality replating being done by guys on the forum for a very reasonable rate.
 
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Ok wasn't sure that these would turn out that well. I ended up soaking them overnight in simple green and then went at it with a toothbrush. Never imagined that all that crud would come off. I was sure this was spent. I might actually end up getting a few of my razors replated. Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction for that. I saw west coast shaving had a service but was a little pricey to me. Any other recommendations?
 

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Was doing some reading and even though mine has a date code of J 16281, there is no stamp on the bottom of the plate of either "Made in America" or "Property of the U.S. Army".
The next J date code was in 1939 and they were making the NEW by then right?
 
Was doing some reading and even though mine has a date code of J 16281, there is no stamp on the bottom of the plate of either "Made in America" or "Property of the U.S. Army".
The next J date code was in 1939 and they were making the NEW by then right?
they made it into the 40's
 
Was doing some reading and even though mine has a date code of J 16281, there is no stamp on the bottom of the plate of either "Made in America" or "Property of the U.S. Army".
The next J date code was in 1939 and they were making the NEW by then right?
youers is not a NEW razor. old type
 
Yeah that's what I thought. I just thought it was odd that there was no stamping of any kind on it. From what I had read all J date codes from 1919 had the Made in America or Property of the US Army on it.
 
Yeah that's what I thought. I just thought it was odd that there was no stamping of any kind on it. From what I had read all J date codes from 1919 had the Made in America or Property of the US Army on it.
and F G H J .............. or K (1919-1920), 3 and hald million sold to USA Government in 1918
 
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Whoa... There's a whole lot of confusing info flying back and forth here. What you've got there, Jay, is a "J" serial number. A "J" date code is an entirely different (and later) thing. J would have been a date code on blades in 1939, but that has really nothing to with the razor serial numbering scheme.

I don't see any real reason to doubt that what you've got there is a proper ball-end Old Type produced under the WWI government contract -- the information we have is that all J-series razors were produced under contract and, for most of the series, were numbered in batches of 100. That is, there might be 99 other razors stamped "J 16281" from the same batch as yours. Current info would put your serial number's production early in 1919.

It is rather odd that you say the bottom of your guard plate doesn't have the "PROPERTY U.S. ARMY" inscription, as I don't think I've ever seen a J-series razor that didn't have one. But it's possible that they just missed it -- either through an error or in rushing to keep up with production. I've seen some stamps that were extremely faint, though. How sure are you that there's nothing there?
 
Whoa... There's a whole lot of confusing info flying back and forth here. What you've got there, Jay, is a "J" serial number. A "J" date code is an entirely different (and later) thing. J would have been a date code on blades in 1939, but that has really nothing to with the razor serial numbering scheme.

I don't see any real reason to doubt that what you've got there is a proper ball-end Old Type produced under the WWI government contract -- the information we have is that all J-series razors were produced under contract and, for most of the series, were numbered in batches of 100. That is, there might be 99 other razors stamped "J 16281" from the same batch as yours. Current info would put your serial number's production early in 1919.

It is rather odd that you say the bottom of your guard plate doesn't have the "PROPERTY U.S. ARMY" inscription, as I don't think I've ever seen a J-series razor that didn't have one. But it's possible that they just missed it -- either through an error or in rushing to keep up with production. I've seen some stamps that were extremely faint, though. How sure are you that there's nothing there?

Great reply as always Porter, but weren't all the military sets in nickel or silver, not gold?
 
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