Cabbage Cutter

[DominoM]

My French is a bit limited, so after I won an ebay.fr auction for a straight razor I decided to actually read the listing via google translate.

Imagine my shock when "Je vous propose cet ancien rasoir coupe choux des années 20" translated as "I offer this old razor cut cabbage for 20 years"

No wonder I got it so cheap!



Good job I know "coupe choux" doesn't really mean that

 

[grump]

You have to love those cabbage cutters!

 

[Legion]

Hopefully Luc will be along soon. I remember him once explaining the whole "cabbage cutter" business to me, But I can't quite remember what he said.

 

[SinnerinRehab]

Too funny. But true

 

[honed]

I can't remember where I read it, but I know that whole "cabbage cutter" makes sense in French. Some sort of slang/expression or whatever it was.

 

[DominoM]

Yeah, it's because cabbage "choux" is slang for head. I think coupe choux is equivalent of cut throat in that it's slang that became common to distinguish a straight razor from other types.



Unless of course the green is left over cabbage

 

[DominoM]

My cabbage cutter arrived this morning. Apparently before sending, the seller decided to remove the green oxidation, and in polishing it also took out some of the black coating in the engraving. Probably was unavoidable, but I'd have preferred to make that decision myself. None of the corrosion was too serious and I thought I'd probably just get away with Autosol polish. I've spent about an hour rubbing it down with that on a microfibre cloth, and made sure I polished out the rest of the black as I didn't like the worn look.

I still need to cleanup around the pivot, and I'll spend a little more time polishing to clean up the last of the pits. I'll probably continue by hand as I'm trying to work around the engraving now.
One of the reasons i bought this razor was to have a better look at whatever the funky protrusions were on the scales. It's a catch to hold the blade closed

The other reason was it's "Le Doris" name. My grandmother was called Doris and as I was prone to being somewhere between stubble and a full beard, she'd frequently say "get rid of this" while fondling her chin. It's why I want to preserve the engraving "Special for stiff beard" as I know it would have given her a laugh that she finally got to remove my beard.

So yeah, a nice 6/8 razor, none the worse for 20 years of cutting cabbages

 

[DominoM]

A few more hours work in polishing pivot area with a toothbrush and honing the chips out and it was ready to shave!

 

[hig789]

That was nice of the seller to screw the black in the engraving before he sent it. Anyways it looks great now.

 

[DominoM]

That was nice of the seller to screw the black in the engraving before he sent it. Anyways it looks great now.

Yeah, just a pity his dremel got out of control and left a nice scratch in the engraving as well

Still it's not as bad as what was done to the scales. This was pre auction (probably long before) as you can see it in the original photo. But apparently at some point the wedge end was loose, and it was "fixed" by holding it next to a cigarette lighter flame to melt the plastic. That's why it's straight on one side and curved on the other!

On the upside, the corrosion and blade chips weren't as bad as I was expecting, and I don't mind this particular razor being covered with the scars of it's history. It only cost me $15 with shipping, and the flaws are just cosmetic, it shaves great

 

[hig789]

Yeah you can't complain for $15. A drop of super glue would have been much simpler to fix the wedge you would think.

 

[Earcutter]

I always get the creeps when someone takes a dremel to a blade. It's not the scratches or whatever that scares me, it's the fact that those things even when buffing produce a whole lot of heat!

I don't know much if anything about the properties of steel but I read here that heating up your blade could mess with the temper - but what do I know. Maybe someone can clue me in a bit.

I do know that I love the term cabbage cutter! Way better than cut-throat lol!

 

[DominoM]

I don't know much if anything about the properties of steel but I read here that heating up your blade could mess with the temper - but what do I know. Maybe someone can clue me in a bit.

My understanding is that the colour of the steel will change according to the temperature it's tempered at. It's why steel exhausts go all funky and rainbow coloured as different parts get to different temperatures. So if a blade is heated too much it's not that it loses it's temper, but that it's retempered to a softer state. I don't know where that occurs - though the general recommendation I was given is if you can hold it (close to the point you are dremeling) then it's ok - I wonder if that means the lowest entry on the chart I linked (100 degrees c) is the danger point? I think razors are normally tempered in the 343 to 482 degrees c range. You could probably guesstimate how easily a blade would take a bevel and hold it from it's shade of grey.

I do know that I love the term cabbage cutter! Way better than cut-throat lol!

But then you'd be Cabbage Trimmer rather than Earcutter. It doesn't have the same impact

 

[Earcutter]

My understanding is that the colour of the steel will change according to the temperature it's tempered at. It's why steel exhausts go all funky and rainbow coloured as different parts get to different temperatures. So if a blade is heated too much it's not that it loses it's temper, but that it's retempered to a softer state. I don't know where that occurs - though the general recommendation I was given is if you can hold it (close to the point you are dremeling) then it's ok - I wonder if that means the lowest entry on the chart I linked (100 degrees c) is the danger point? I think razors are normally tempered in the 343 to 482 degrees c range. You could probably guesstimate how easily a blade would take a bevel and hold it from it's shade of grey.

Thanks!!

But then you'd be Cabbage Trimmer rather than Earcutter. It doesn't have the same impact

Yeah it wouldn't be the same would it lol!

 

[Feather-man]

Is there no question this forum can't answer?

 

[Doc226]

Is there no question this forum can't answer?

How does a 3 year old thread get resurrected?

Happening a lot lately

 

[Alum of Potash]

Is there no question this forum can't answer?

Yes, start a thread asking about long-term storage of a Suehiro Rika 5k in water. ;-)

In any case, you have to be careful asking to see a "coupe-choux" in France. Sometimes they'll haul out a military saber rather than a razor, the former being applied to the original sense of the term.

 

[Gamma]

It's called a bump. Sometimes it happens intentionally, other times the 'bumper' doesn't realize.

I like the clip on those scales... I'm happy to have had another look at them.

 

[Feather-man]

I should have wrote "bump".