As I promissed in the Newbie forum, here are some pictures of what my grandfather used for shaving. I am hoping to have it restored to shave ready, not necessarily bright and shiny, but good enough for a decent shave.
I have my grandfarthers razor (Gillette DE) I intend to get it replated. looks like that should clean up nice. gssixgun is prob the person you would be best sending your razor to. (assuming you are based in USA). The pics he has posted of restored razors are stunning. There are other talented people aswell, but may be worth sending him a message to chat about it.
I am not based in USA... I am (unfortunatly...?) based in Norway. It seems to me that the market for straights in general, and restoring straights in particullar, is very limited. We have those who do great stuff with knives, but if I have got it right, it is a bit different to work on a straight... I have never tried a straigt (or DE) before, but I have wanted to for a long time. I am on a bit of a budget, so I am still making plans and daydreaming...
you can still send it to gssixgun (Glen) granted the postage will be higher, the are lots of people on here that can give you advice regarding using a straight. And if your on a budget DE shaving is not expensive (unless you want it to be) http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/cheap-week-dec-19-25.26347/ Above is the thread for cheap week a theme we had here a few months ago gives you and idea of how cost effective this can be.. And the cost to get a straight razor honed (sharpened) is about £10 here in the uk.
Nice intro to cheap DE shaving! As I stated earlier, I am planing, and have allready ordered a stick of Arko One of the reasons I want to get into straight (and maybe DE) shaving is the cost issue. And the fact that I am not very comfortable with the idea of supporting comanies like Gillette and their cartridge razors. Always coming up with something "new", making it necessary to buy new equipment, and still not making the shave any better. In my opinion, the old mach 3 is better than much of what they have come up with afterwards. With straight and DE shaving, I feel that the initial costs might be higher, but the overall costs soon ends up lower.
Yeah the cost are lower, if you want a new DE razor the Edwin Jagger 89L is about £20 on amazon and most retailers but that is a very good new razor astra blades (I find are very good) are about £8.00 for 100!! Omega boar brush about £7.00 then shave sticks here in UK less than £1.00 I have never tried the Arko but I hear good things about them. with a straight you would need a strop. and get the razor honed every 6-12 months ish If your unsure on anything just ask the question, so much help on here, we all started knowing nothing and are happy to share. good luck with what ever you choose.
Very greatful for the answers so far! My biggest problem right now is that Amazon does not ship health and beauty items to Norway... I have made a nice shopping cart there, but unfortunatly, it does not compute with Norway as shipping destination. Have not found equal "easy to shop" websites that ship these kind of items to Norway.
http://connaughtshaving.com/index.html Its UK based but a lot of people use them on this site (people based in both Europe and USA) prices are good maybe not so much on the blades but evrything else
Having your grandfather's razor is cool! And sounds like alpla444 is giving some good advice. Hope you find someone who can restore that blade for you. I will second Glen. He's done some work for me and I am very satisfied.
Nice, I'll be sure to browse through that one And to swarden43, yes I really hope to get it restored. I'll keep Glen in mind, if it's done right, maybe my budget isn't that important anyway (it is after all my grandfather's razor).
It's funny cuz I googled around one day and found quite a few straight razor makers and such..What I'm saying is that straight stuff might be more common that you think.. seek and yee shall find lol..
Edit addition: Here's a couple of places I found..now I don't know if they do restoration or what the prices are like.. but there seems to be stuff around anyways... http://www.bobsrazors.com/shoppage/...E2cGQLvZtkZ2C04TlY0awHIPcoSzvsE9D&shop_param= http://www.straightrazordesigns.com/the-custom-straight-razor-shop
I have friends in Norge they hang out at SRP and go by Birnando, Otto, Str8fencer, Blix, and Zephyr, they are really nice guys and even have meet ups in Oslo,, They all hone and Zephyr restores, if you want to pm me yer E-mail I will get you in touch with them... Quite a little straight razor contingent there in Norway They also can point you to all the tricks of shipping and local soaps and creams I used to live right below Holmenkollen Bakken (sp) I hope I spelled that right, when I was a youngun Welcome to TSD
Thanks for the recommendation Glen You know, Glen is right, there is actually quite an active community of wet shavers here in the Oslo area. As for your restoration needs, I would check out Rune(Zephyr) on SRP. He does fine work, and doesn't charge all that much either. If he doesn't chime in here, feel free to PM me, and I'll get the connection set up for you. If a honing is all you need, I'd be happy to help you out, no wories. And no cost Oh, we are also having a Nordic getogether around June or August in Oslo. I'll post more details on as we set the date and stuff Spot on with the spelling Glen, our national skiing centre with the famous ski-jumping hill is indeed in Holmenkollen.
Sincity, we are here to help, my friend Rune (Zephyr) does great restores and just PM me to get in touch with him, he lives like 350 meters down the road from me And Glen, you need to visit Norway again.
I'm flattered guys, thanks @sincity: if you want it restored shoot me a PM and I'm sure we can figure something out.
Wow, this forum exceeds all my expectations! To you fellow norwegians, I'll be in touch. Just have to get off my phone and on my computer... Can't wait with this follow up question though. Is there anyone here who can tell me more about my straight by looking at the pictures?
I'm not very familiar with the Pollart brand, but I recall seeing a few out there. It's a vintage German made razor, which in general is a good sign, it looks to be a 4/8 and if IRC it's a 1/4 hollow/near wedge grind, once cleaned up and honed it should make a nice little shaver Edit: Oh yeah, almost forgot, the scales looks to be bone.
I think you are right about the scales, look very much like bone. I'm a bit traditional, and usually like things to be as original as possible, so I have not made my mind up as to how much I want done with the razor. My initial thought would be to clean it up and get it shave ready as it is to day. Keeping the original scales, just a good clean and necessary adjusments. The fancy restores or brand new ones will probably come in itme if I get hooked on straight shaving....
