Open Comb before and after w/repair/disassembly

Greetings everyone,

I wanted to start a new thread dealing exclusively with the cleaning,repair, and disassembly of twist to open (TTO) open comb safety razors. After the Gillette adjustable madness, I started receiving a lot of inquiries to cleanup and repair some open comb TTOs. Well, I had never worked on an open comb so I began lending my amateur advice via PM. After a short amount of time, I was referred to by Chris Evatt ([email protected]) to repair a British No. 19 that one of his customers sent to him. It had four bent down teeth on the corners of the comb portion (see pictures below) among other discrepancies that I repaired. Needless to say, the open combs I have worked on so far have proved to be very simple but also delicate. Here are the before photos of the No. 19 I am referring to:

These are not my original before photos so expect the notorious "green" cloth

I will be moving through the thread as I receive more open combs to cleanup and repair, thank you all for watching and trusting me with your razors!

As you can see in the before photos of the No. 19, it also had a dropped TTO knob, that was an easy fix. The overall mechanical function of the razor was rough and sticky. This No. 19 features the left-handed or "reverse thread" screw in the bottom of the TTO knob. I removed the screw to have a closer look and found minimal buildup on the threads which led me to investigate the stickiness upon opening and closing. At any rate, the 19 received a nice internal cleanup and the discrepancies listed above were repaired...see them nice straight teeth.

Wow ... those teeth were badly bent! It's almost a miracle that they could be repaired so perfectly, how was the process?

I'd say, Edgar! As far as I understand the whole open comb thing, they are cast from memory but I am not entirely sure about that statement. I've even found little tiny metal pieces that were left inside the teeth as a result of the suspected process on some NEWs I have come across, I removed them with my fingernail! As for the process of straightening them, I don't usually get nervous or worry but when this was sent to me to straighten out the teeth, I began to worry. Yes, brass is soft but small teeth like this can't take much bending and tweaking. I approached this repair with great caution, as with any razor I repair. I took my pencil torch and lightly heated the first corner that was to be repaired. After heating, I used my teflon tipped needle nose pliers and went to work, lightly and slowly bending the corner tooth back up. Surprisingly, it was very easy to bend back into shape. I then checked the underside of the tooth to see if there was any apparent damage, all good. After the first tooth was repaired, I moved around the razor, straightening all four out. I have no clue how all four corners were bent down in the same area...either someone intended on the bends or was very good at dropping it on on the same area, four separate times Anyways, after the repair, I noticed that the gap between the doors had increased slightly. After studying the razor and how it worked, I came to the conclusion that the corners actually press against the doors when they close thus making the doors close tight (could this be why the corners were all bent down, who knows). This required me to further tweak the corners that were bent inward towards the center of the razor and I was able to close the gap to the thickness of a safety razor blade. I'm afraid anymore tweaking and I would have snapped a corner off and as far as I understand, these No. 19s aren't the most available.

True, those are definitely not common razors.

As always CAP, fantastic, just fantastic! I'm sure Mike will be very happy and enjoy the razor now that you restored it to its former glory!

great job! so glad it can now be replated and brought back to its former glory. man my heart would have been pounding if i were in the process of straightening them teeth, lol. and i know exactly what your talking about on the NEWs. i dont have long enough fingernails, but i just removed it in mine with a plastic butter knife. there just like little flakes left over in between them teeth.

Here is the No. 19 after I cleaned it and made all necessary repairs:

it really does look like it never had any bent teeth at all.....

nuclearblast said:

True, those are definitely not common razors.

As always CAP, fantastic, just fantastic! I'm sure Mike will be very happy and enjoy the razor now that you restored it to its former glory!

Click to expand...

Thank you, Edgar! I think he will be too! The No. 19 was sent off to Chris to be replated. When it is done, perhaps Mike will share for all to see

forrestgump said:

great job! so glad it can now be replated and brought back to its former glory. man my heart would have been pounding if i were in the process of straightening them teeth, lol. and i know exactly what your talking about on the NEWs. i dont have long enough fingernails, but i just removed it in mine with a plastic butter knife. there just like little flakes left over in between them teeth.

Click to expand...

Thank you Gump! I gained a lot of understanding as a result of this repair, my hat is off to Mike for trusting me to make the repair!

Sweet. Good show.

WOW!! Capt. Murphy moonlights as Houdini. That is some serious razor magic.

Thats really good job!

You're a miracle worker.

Just fantastic! CAP, you have exceeded all of my expectations.

As the "first responder" for this razor, I fully knew what you were up against when I had Mike send it your way. Even though these "Numbered" Brits are an entirely different thing than your beloved Fat Boys, I knew that if anyone could figure out these razors - it would be you. This thread will be another fine chapter in your classic series of razor magic.

Who knows what type of razor I will be referring to you next time around! I believe that I am keeping you just as busy as you are keeping me. I am honored to have you as my teammate on our journey to bring these vintage beauties back to life!

Well done, Cap!
Congats, Mike!

tonich said:

Well done, Cap!
Congats, Mike!

Click to expand...

+1

I see a lot of work with the numbered British razors in the days ahead. I'm glad to see this competence among our members.

I'm not really into razors (brushes are my thing ) but I have a distinct feeling that the market is being saturated with heavily used and not so pretty British Aristocrats simply because there are not enough pretty ones! The pre war OCs are not at all predictable as shawers so both Chris and Captain will certainly be busy for a long while! It takes some experience to take these apart...

The green microfiber does it again.

Well done Mr. Captain - repairing bent teeth is an altogether different and difficult animal to tame - Congrats.

Wonderful work CAP!!

Wow. That's all I have to say about that.

I now know where to get repairs, thanks to all.