As I've mentioned in other threads, I live in the middle of nowhere (a nice MON however). There is only one antique store in the 4 small towns surrounding and the owner looked at me like I was insane when I asked if he had old razors.
Last week I tried posting an ad in the local classified website we have here (there's never anything on our section of kijiji, except for cars, fishing boats and snowmobiles) and mentioned I was looking for old DE razors. One lady wrote back saying she had 3 of them. I asked for a pic and here's what she sent:
I thought "not bad, a tech, a slim and a very used gold thingy that looks like an aristocrat". Bought all three of them. The lady didn't live far but shipping overnight was less pricey than the roundtrip gas money.
The tech needed some polishing but turned out quite nice. It has been used a lot but looks great. The slim (J3) is the cleanest I've encountered yet. While not "as new", I did a basic disinfection and it was good to go. Shaved with it last night and it gave me a great shave.
The challenge and prize, so to speak, was the aristocrat. I wasn't sure from the pic but it is an open comb in the nice golden case. Here a few "before" pics. It was really dirty, and I wasn't sure there was any gold plating left on it. It has been used A LOT, which I find cool. It's not going to be a pricey collector's item but there's something nice about knowing that it was bought and used as it was meant to be. The handle had no plating left as did some other parts of it. A couple of bent teeth on the corner but nothing so bad. I won't touch them unless I realize they pose a problem while shaving.
I spent a solid hour working on it. Lots of scrubbing bubbles, soap and whatnot. In the end there is a lot of gold plating left but the handle is pure brass. Looks kinda good in a two-tone way. I hit it up "lightly" with some Silvo with a q-tip. My first reaction to the first pass was "oh god, I'm removing the gold plating!". Then I looked at my wedding band and realized "oh, that's what gold looks like...". Some very light polishing made it look quite good.
It suffered from dropped-knob syndrome, which I fixed (first time doing it) using a washer and my pipe cutter.
Then, I realized that the gold plating was now exposed. I bought some high-gloss clear coat and applied two very light coats with a q-tip to all the areas I could. Handle, doors, base plate, etc... the results are quite good I must say, especially when compared to its original state.
The case and blade case look a bit scuffed but nice, I'm not going to touch them. The case specifies "made in Canada" but the razor's base plate says "made in england"...cool.
Here are the after pics. Based on MR. Razor, it looks like the first version of the TTO aristocrat with the open comb and all. However, I'm not quite good/familiar with the numbering system. If any of you guys cares to enlighten me that'd be great...enjoy:
Last week I tried posting an ad in the local classified website we have here (there's never anything on our section of kijiji, except for cars, fishing boats and snowmobiles) and mentioned I was looking for old DE razors. One lady wrote back saying she had 3 of them. I asked for a pic and here's what she sent:
I thought "not bad, a tech, a slim and a very used gold thingy that looks like an aristocrat". Bought all three of them. The lady didn't live far but shipping overnight was less pricey than the roundtrip gas money.
The tech needed some polishing but turned out quite nice. It has been used a lot but looks great. The slim (J3) is the cleanest I've encountered yet. While not "as new", I did a basic disinfection and it was good to go. Shaved with it last night and it gave me a great shave.
The challenge and prize, so to speak, was the aristocrat. I wasn't sure from the pic but it is an open comb in the nice golden case. Here a few "before" pics. It was really dirty, and I wasn't sure there was any gold plating left on it. It has been used A LOT, which I find cool. It's not going to be a pricey collector's item but there's something nice about knowing that it was bought and used as it was meant to be. The handle had no plating left as did some other parts of it. A couple of bent teeth on the corner but nothing so bad. I won't touch them unless I realize they pose a problem while shaving.
I spent a solid hour working on it. Lots of scrubbing bubbles, soap and whatnot. In the end there is a lot of gold plating left but the handle is pure brass. Looks kinda good in a two-tone way. I hit it up "lightly" with some Silvo with a q-tip. My first reaction to the first pass was "oh god, I'm removing the gold plating!". Then I looked at my wedding band and realized "oh, that's what gold looks like...". Some very light polishing made it look quite good.
It suffered from dropped-knob syndrome, which I fixed (first time doing it) using a washer and my pipe cutter.
Then, I realized that the gold plating was now exposed. I bought some high-gloss clear coat and applied two very light coats with a q-tip to all the areas I could. Handle, doors, base plate, etc... the results are quite good I must say, especially when compared to its original state.
The case and blade case look a bit scuffed but nice, I'm not going to touch them. The case specifies "made in Canada" but the razor's base plate says "made in england"...cool.
Here are the after pics. Based on MR. Razor, it looks like the first version of the TTO aristocrat with the open comb and all. However, I'm not quite good/familiar with the numbering system. If any of you guys cares to enlighten me that'd be great...enjoy:
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