Old dirty and rusty Worcester straight razor

Rusty and pitted tip of a Worcester straight razor

This is an old Worcester Razor that I bought for $5, as you see it has been seeing better days. It’s dirty pitted, with some heavy dark rust spots to the front, but it is of good quality and will make a good shaver. The goal is to just getting it cleaned up a little, and in shaving shape fast and easy.

Sanding of Worcester Straight razor with 400 grit sandpaper

First a I got rid of the heavy rust with #220 and #400 grit sandpaper, after that I continued with #800, #1000, #1500 and #2000 just to make it a little smoother and easier to keep clean.

Worcester straight razor with a light clean up

This is what it looks like after the light sanding job, time to start sharpening.
I started to carefully set a new bevel with Beston #500, I don’t think this step would have been necessary if I hadn’t got to that edge with the sanding paper. After that I did the primary sharpening alternating between Bester #2000, and a Shun #6000 stone as in the table below, with lighter and lighter touch for each step.

Step           Stone           Laps
1                #2000           20
2                #6000           20
3                #2000           12
4                #6000           20
5                #2000           6
6                #6000           16
7                #2000           2
8                #6000          10

I know it doesn’t seams logical to alternate, but until I started to do it like this learning to sharpen razors, I didn’t consistently get them hair popping sharp. I’m sure there are theories why it works, but I haven’t researched it. After this I start to finish the edge with Kitayama #8000, I used to use Naniwa super stones #12000 for this, but realized that Kitayama actually were doing a better job. After this step I usually finish up with 3M lapping film on granite, with edge trailing motion and some stropping with Blue magic polishing cream on leather and on a straight horse butt strop without any dressing.

Worcester straight razor passing the hanging hair sharpening test

Sharpness number 5, its popping hanging hair without problem.

The Worcester razor's edge magnified after sharpening and stropping

This is what the edge look like magnified, pretty good for something that might be a 100 years old. It is a good shaver, not the smoothest ever but better than acceptable. I have no idea about how good it will hold an edge, because I have just used it once, but I have a feeling it will hold up for a few shaves with just stropping. If it’s cared for, I’m sure it might give 50 more years of shaving. I think a cheap straight razor like this is a great choice for someone just starting out using straights. You would never again have to go out and pay an arm and a leg for Gillette fusion, and you would be good to the environment recycling a piece of history not to mention how manly it makes you feel using a straight razor. I’m Swedish, so my preferences when it comes to vintage straight razors, is Swedish straight razors, and I try to pick up cheap ones as soon as I have an opportunity.

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