Wester Bros garage sale find

I have been thinking about trying a straight razor and was going to buy one when I had the money. I communicated with a knowledgeable online friend about this and he instructed me to make sure I did not get anything rusty. Yesterday at a garage sale I saw a straight razor for $5 and bought it with the assumption that for that price I would just display it as part of my shaving collection if it ends up being unusable. It looks like maybe it had some rust on it and somebody cleaned it a little. The edge has very tiny nicks in it. It is a Wester Bros De-F 34 made in Solhigen Germany. Is this something that can be restored and used? If so, where would I find direction on how to do so?

So the picture is a bit fuzzy, but the condition looks good enough.
Anyway, rust is actually not a problem. It comes off easy.
Small nicks are not that bad either, you just lose a bit of the blade width, which does not affect shaving that much. It just change sthe aesthetic of the razor.

For restoring, the scales seem good, so no worry there.
What you want to do is get some sand paper and clean up the blade until the rust is gone, and the blade is polished enough you feel good about it.
The regular sand paper works fine. 220 is typically a good starting point. 400 is still easy to get. Emery cloth is harder to find but does the same job as sand paper but cuts a bit faster.
Once the blade is clean then comes honing.
It is not hard but requires proper material, mainly the stones.
Do you have access to honing stones? You will need 1000 or so for bevel setting and then a progression down to something at least grit 8000.
Preferably, though especially if you have not shaved much with a straight, better to send it out, than to try to do it yourself as it is hard to hone when you are not familiar with what the end result should be like.
You might find someone on the board with expertise nearby.

My camera belonged to my wife's grandfather which is the only grandfather I ever had, long story. Sentimental value, plus it is the only camera I have now besides my phone. The flash is too bright, when I get close it washes out the pic, far away with zoom it gets blurry. I am going to try a little distance with no zoom. Okay, that turned out a little bit better but still not great.

Is there a way to remove the scales and do the work on the blade then reassemble? Otherwise it will be hard to polish around the scales.

I am a woodworker with a full set of water stones, 1000, 4000, and 8000, plus a knowledge of how to sharpen steel tools. A razor would just be a lower angle. Do people use jigs to hold the razor at the right angle?

That's a great find, especially for $5. Congrats. Here is a whole thread you can browse through for restoration tips and ideas: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/forumdisplay.php/95-Restoration-amp-Razor-Making-How-To-s

You can remove the scales, but doing so destroys the pins and you have to re-pin. Not hard to do.

That should clean up nicely.

Good luck to you.

In the restoration link there's a tutorial on building a rare earth magnet straight razor jig. I'll be assembling mine this weekend!