The slight twist being; I've never done this before, have intentionally read nothing about it, never honed a razor from scratch, don't know much about them generally, and am going to alter the design. "Whatever could go wrong?" I hear you cry!
This restoration project was a gift from another member, and when I asked him what he would recommend doing with the scales/handle, he said I should just knock up another set and peen them in. Unfortunately this betrayed a wildly misplaced confidence in my woodworking abilities on, and indeed my range of available tools. Which got me to thinking... The scaled, hinged, handle design of a straight razor is absolutely terrible. It's also perfect, and I suspect unimprovable. But let's see eh!
A SR has an awful handle for honing and stropping; it's too long, it's too bent, it's too flat. It needs *a lot* more axial symmetry.
A SR has a brilliant handle for shaving; it's ergonomic, highly adaptable, and it fits the blade well when folded.
And seeing as I don't have the tools, ability, or inclination to make a hinged handle, I'm going to make a fixed one. It works on Kamisori, right...?
---
I popped the handle off and sawed a nice bit of Olive wood:
Then gave the blade a bit of a vinegar bath and some sanding. I only went from 600 - 2k, so there's still some rust pitting/marks. On a knife this would be fine, in fact aesthetically I rather like it. On a razor I'm less confident, is this going to be a problem later...?
The blade was a little bent at the end, but it's so thin that I kinda just bent it back a bit in my hands. This may also come back to haunt me, but it looks alright now.
TBC...
This restoration project was a gift from another member, and when I asked him what he would recommend doing with the scales/handle, he said I should just knock up another set and peen them in. Unfortunately this betrayed a wildly misplaced confidence in my woodworking abilities on, and indeed my range of available tools. Which got me to thinking... The scaled, hinged, handle design of a straight razor is absolutely terrible. It's also perfect, and I suspect unimprovable. But let's see eh!
A SR has an awful handle for honing and stropping; it's too long, it's too bent, it's too flat. It needs *a lot* more axial symmetry.
A SR has a brilliant handle for shaving; it's ergonomic, highly adaptable, and it fits the blade well when folded.
And seeing as I don't have the tools, ability, or inclination to make a hinged handle, I'm going to make a fixed one. It works on Kamisori, right...?
---
I popped the handle off and sawed a nice bit of Olive wood:
Then gave the blade a bit of a vinegar bath and some sanding. I only went from 600 - 2k, so there's still some rust pitting/marks. On a knife this would be fine, in fact aesthetically I rather like it. On a razor I'm less confident, is this going to be a problem later...?
The blade was a little bent at the end, but it's so thin that I kinda just bent it back a bit in my hands. This may also come back to haunt me, but it looks alright now.
TBC...