First set of custom scales

[twigg]

Hey all,

So a while back I posted my first "restored" razor (griffon carbomagnetic that I basically botched). Since then, I've had increasing work/school obligations and started seeing someone, so I have way less time for restoring razors. That being said, I have been working towards my first real restored razor: a dubl duck satinedge with a set of purpleheart wood scales. It's not quite done, but I never known when I'll get the urge to post again, so I'm posting this a little prematurely.

I may or may not take another crack at polishing the blade. I included a candid shot of the blade showing all the defects (some bluish marks from buffing, a bunch of honing scratches near the edge, and a few residual sanding scratches. Part of me is hesitant to drop another five hours into perfecting this blade, because no matter how nice I get it, there's no way for me to get those deep puts out on the spine above the toe without ruining the grind. This sucker is already already hollow ground, so a regrind is a stretch. Also, I'd hate to lose whatever nice temper was put on this blade back in Deutschland. So I decided to live with the those pits. I don't think I'll muster the courage to start over on that polish either.

The scales I cut and hand sanded from purpleheart. The inlays are the original satinedge inlays. I finished the scales first with 5 coats of tru-oil (basically just linseed oil), then somewhere between 10 and 15 coats of wipe-on clear polyurethane (minwax). I'm not happy with the poly finish on the scales yet (see yuckyness around the inlay), and nothing has been pinned. My plan is to keep laying coats of poly on it until the inlay is covered up and the whole thing is smooth, polish it up to clean out the bumps and bubbles, then pin it all together. I still have about 1/32" left of poly to build up before I get flush with the inlays. The wedge is brass matching the inlays.

I'm really worried about the wood splitting under the pressure of pinning. I may glue the bottom pin+washers in and use minimal hammer.

I'd really love feedback on this, especially the critical kind. As I mentioned above, some of my next projects are some really nice blades and I'd hate to ruin any of them. In particular, the honing scratches really bother me, so if any of you know what might be causing those, you'd be doing me a huge favor.

 

[Dryphter]

That wood color is fabtastic

 

[Ice-Man]

Sorry to say but that blade if its gone blue from polishing with a Dremel, then you have taken the temper out of it that's what they call blue of death for a razor.

And the second point is the heal of the blade, it looks to be honing up the stabiliser and giving the blade a frown see picture below.

As well as giving it a square edge as it should be rounded... see this pic below.

 

[twigg]

Sorry to say but that blade if its gone blue from polishing with a Dremel, then you have taken the temper out of it that's what they call blue of death for a razor.

And the second point is the heal of the blade, it looks to be honing up the stabiliser and giving the blade a frown see picture below.

View attachment 970528
As well as giving it a square edge as it should be rounded... see this pic below.

View attachment 970531

Regarding the temper, that actually makes a lot of sense. D'oh! Guess I'll keep it as a practice piece for when I build a propane forge. Next time I gotta keep a cup of water on hand while buffing.

Regarding the heel, d'oh! Probably also had something to do with those scratches.

 

[Dryphter]

How hot would it have to get to ruin the temper? I polished a couple blades with Mother’s and a Drexel, but never got it hotter than it would get from soaking in hot tap water. Serious polishing to get it hotter than that. Yikes.

 

[Ice-Man]

The Dremel can heat the blade up very fast along the edge, and once the blade gets a blue colour it has lost its temper. While I polish the blade I use my finger on the backside to feel if my blade gets warm, then a cold dunk in iced water to cool it off but just think how thin the blade is near the edge.....

 

[twigg]

Hey Ice-Man, I had a couple questions about the blue death if you got the time.

Is it weird that I didn't get any straw coloration, but went straight to blue? It was keeping me up last night, because I would've expected some thermal gradient, resulting in a light blue-blueish-bronze-straw color gradient around where I overheated the metal.

Part of me is hoping that I didn't wreck the blade, and that the blue is just leftover "blue magic" polishing compound that got deep into some scratches or something silly like that. That being said, after polishing I wiped down the blade with brasso to try and dissolve and clear up any wax left over. I did check it out under my 24x loupe though and I did notice that there isn't any straw color whatsoever and only the scratches appear blue, as opposed to a blue film layer. Man I wish I had one of those USB microscopes so I could show you what I mean. What do you think?

 

[mycarver]

Seeing how much edge is missing from the blade I’d say you really compromised the bevel angle.
And if you saw blue then yeah you overheated it and killed the temper.
Why no straw color?
We’re you heating the blade gradually? No. Metal that thin heats very quickly and you simply shot past the gradual heating/tempering stages and blue is the final stage of overheating.

 

[twigg]

Sorry for the long delay on this reply. Had my hands full with work and school.

Seeing how much edge is missing from the blade I’d say you really compromised the bevel angle.

Yeah, I still suck at honing and setting the bevel. It's something I'm still learning by trial and error. I just want to clarify to make sure I understand what's wrong. Is the problem that the edge is too narrow? Could this be because I put too thick a layer of electrical tape on the spine?

I've done some tests since my last post, and I don't think I've lost the temper on the satinedge. The short version is that the blade is still hard(er than my file), plus I can reproduce the blue patterns with my buffer without getting the steel hot, and I only get these blue patterns when I use my cheapo dremel as a buffer, which I know has a large run-out. When I use a nicer flexshaft tool to buff, I don't get these blue marks. Lastly, upon looking at the blue spot more closely, there isn't a continuous blue film, just a lot of little blue scratches. I don't know exactly what happened, but I think it has to do with the uneven stroke on the dremel causing an extra harsh abrasion, perhaps oxidizing the inside of the scratches(?). The good news is that all the blue buffs out in a single pass (if I bother to use my flexshaft tool), and that the blade is still hard.

To clarify, when I said I can reproduce the blue marks without getting the steel hot, I meant that I got blue marks on the tang of a razor, and checked that the metal was only warm to the touch immediately after I stopped buffing. I understand that the blue means there is oxidized steel, but I don't think the bulk of the steel is compromised.

Also, when I say that the blade is still hard, I did a file test. I've done file tests with soft blades and with hard blades before, so I know the difference. This blade is definitely still hard, or at least harder than my file. Specifically, I ran the file directly over the blue spot on the razor, and it skated right across. I've also checked the edge, spine, and plunge for hardness. Haven't found any soft spots.

What do you all think?

Again, thanks for your input!

 

[global_dev]

I just want to clarify to make sure I understand what's wrong. Is the problem that the edge is too narrow?

I think he means the proportion between the width of the spine at widest and width of blade from that widest spine point is far off from desired proportion due to the reduction in blade width. tape would only compound this issue further.

you want the even reduction from the spine width alongside the reduction in blade width which is why tape can sometimes be problematic or undesirable