Cleaning 1919 Gillette Single Ring Razor Before & After

I acquired a 1919 Gillette Single Ring the other day and wanted to clean it up. I knew it had a fair amount of plate loss so it wasn’t ever going to be a mint condition example of this razor, but I still thought it deserved to be cleaned up so it could be used again.

It’s hard to believe these razors are now over 100 years old (officially antique!). They were beautifully made and despite their common issues such as cracks in the handle, they are still a joy to behold and use.

See below for some photos of the razor as I found it.

As you can see it could have done with a bit of a clean!

I did the usual routine I do all the time for cleaning vintage razors and it came up slightly better. Not amazing, but still worth the work I think.

See below for the finished result.