Here's a recent restoratio I did on a F.A. Koch 'Faultless'—which when I got my hands on it initially was certainly far from 'flawless.' But I liked a couple things about it: the blade size and shape (despite some hone wear, especially near the nose), and the double jimped tang. Sad pins, blade in rough shape, and the scales had seen better days. I knew I'd lose some of the original color on the 'faux tortoise shell ' scales during the restore, but I was hopeful they'd still polish up nice. Not much rust on the blade at all, just some nasty scratches. I sanded the scales down starting at 180 & progressed my way up to about 2k. They developed a nice translucence and took on a good sheen. The blade required some buffer time but was relatively easy to redeem compared to some others I've encountered recently. New pins of nickel silver plus some stainless washers. I inserted a small section of brass tubing into the blade's pin hole to narrow it's diameter to minimize blade 'play' as the old hole was quite large. This helped keep the blade square in the scales with no 'wobble.' Here are some shots with the 'Faultless' all purdied up—not flawless, but it should make for a good shaver. Side project: I built a solid oak 'hone' box for my newly-acquired Escher hone. I modeled it after some of the early hone boxes I have seen. No hinges on it yet‚—I may decide to go 'hinge-less'. The box bottom is recessed so the Escher rests about 50% within the box. tight fit. Faux label in the lid. This box is NOT for resale, by the way. Purely for my own amusement.
Wow. Just...wow! Can't believe those are the same scales! Beautiful piece of hardware brought back to life.
In my limited experience, most of the really old beat-up celluloid scales I've come across have been too far gone to salvage. Often they have a hidden cracks or splits I don't find until clean up, making them unusable. Fortunately there were no hidden surprises with this pair…
An absolutely amazing restore job. Btw, I'm shaving with the Diamondine straight razor tomorrow morning (had it planned for today but had to dash out early)
Nice job and I really love the jimps on that one. I have two razors of a 7 day set that are marked "Freidel Koch, Solingen. Do you know of these or anything about the maker??
I'm a fan of the jimps as well. Your set is from the same maker as the razor shown in this thread. "Freidrich Audust Koch was in business since 1874 - 1933 in New York City at 100 Chambers Street. By 1904, his company had moved to 524 Broadway, where they remained until 1933. Friedrich August Koch & Co. was an importer and wholesaler of cutlery."
Thanks a lot. I have never been able to find out anything on them. They both have gold etching on blade and spine as well as the shank. One is mint and the other almost with the exception that the gold was polished off the spine a bit and they have been rescaled .I have 37+ SR's and some pretty expensive but these two are the best shavers of all. Pictures taken with a cell so not so good. Scratchs on blade are from when I was learning to hone and it slid off the hone. I have not taken the time to buff the out yet
