First Straight & Attempt at new scales

I got this straight from a fellow B&B member quite a few months ago. A straight from Crown Razor Co.
He honed it for me before sending it, but i got the edge slightly dulled by mucking around with it. I never really gave it a go on my face, so it sat around unused until recently when I decided to give it a new set of scales for the heck of it.

It originally had some black scales that were meh. Serviceable, but not that nice to look at IMO.
I decided to polish up the blade as best I can and make some new scales from wood. Checked out some vids on Youtube and off I went!

Here are the before (not a great photo, sorry) and the after. Let me know what you think! It's a first try and I quite enjoyed it (mistakes and all) so may be on the hunt for some rough ones in the wild!




I polished the blade as best I can, but there are still some discolorations in the blade that I could not seem to get any better for fear of ruining the etching. Anyone have any ideas to get this nice and shiny again?

Now I am sending it off to another generous B&B member to get that edge back where it belongs so I can give this a whirl.

Thanks for reading!

Super nice job on the scales! Really perks that razor up!

Very nice work.

Looks great! Nice work.

Hope you got a strop for it so you can keep the edge up when you get it back.

Very nice resto!!! Congrats.

As for your question on saving the etching, I've read that covering it with some nail polish will do the trick, after you sand it/polish it, just remove the nail polish with normal removal.

Disclaimer: I have never tried it, so I would wait for the experienced restorers to chime in.

Try posting your question the the resto page. And IMO that razor looks great as it is

Very nice scales. Classy.

Maciek.

phat said:

Hope you got a strop for it so you can keep the edge up when you get it back.

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Yup. I got a strop along with the razor but have not used it yet. It is one of the inexpensive ones from Whipped Dog, I believe. The Poor Man's Strop is what the call it, i think. This should be OK, right?

Great job. Way to dive in.

I think it looks great and fits the razor well.

Enjoy.

Waaaaay better than anything I could do! Well done!

NRAM said:

Yup. I got a strop along with the razor but have not used it yet. It is one of the inexpensive ones from Whipped Dog, I believe. The Poor Man's Strop is what the call it, i think. This should be OK, right?

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That's beyond ok, it's perfect. because it will work well, and you will probably chop it up a bit.. I did mine

Nice job Neil! Welcome to the world of straights. If you ever want to chat straights (and maybe have a bowl) let me know.

Purplemonkey said:

Nice job Neil! Welcome to the world of straights. If you ever want to chat straights (and maybe have a bowl) let me know.

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Sure! Though I am a little afraid that it may be from a hospital bed after a slip of the blade... and they don't allow smoking a bowl in the hospital anymore..

I just got it back from Phat, who did a marvelous job honing it for me. Thank you again, sir! Looks "razor" sharp! Going to give it a go on Saturday, I think. Wish me luck!

We'll load up a bowl of aro...they won't mind... Lol

Id say watch the Lynn Abram video and remember to use a slightly thinner lather. Don't be afraid of the blade - tentative strokes always resulted in blood for me.

NRAM said:

Sure! Though I am a little afraid that it may be from a hospital bed after a slip of the blade... and they don't allow smoking a bowl in the hospital anymore..

I just got it back from Phat, who did a marvelous job honing it for me. Thank you again, sir! Looks "razor" sharp! Going to give it a go on Saturday, I think. Wish me luck!

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Well we're all waiting to hear how it goes Oh and by the way - you will cut yourself with it.. just less and less over time

Very nice job indeed. I think the etching is deep enough to polish it close to mirror. Just MHO. A hobbyst might tell you more about it.
Congrats

Looks great! How did the shave go?

Nice job on the restore, and those scales look great!

Having had it in my hand, yes, the etching is very deep and it would work to polish the blade to a mirror..

Note NRAM, if you do decide to do that i'll probably trash the edge in the process so don't do it till you wanna get it re-honed