Is this Dubl Duck shaveworthy or ruined?

[Chickpea McGee]

OK, having the last three days off from work has turned into a flat out RAD bender. Darn you B&B! I am ashamed at how quickly I went from two razors to... Well, I won't kiss and tell for fear my wife may find this post...

Anyway, although I am a safety razor guy, I came across the Dubl Duck below at a reasonable price, and remember seeing the name here enough to figure it was worth taking a chance.

The are two problems, or at least I think they are problems. The first is that the blade (if I am measuring correctly), is 5/8 near the point, and 11/16 near the heel. Dangerous?!? The second is that the blade steel is not shiny. Can you take a look at the pics below and let me know if you think this could turn into a shave worthy straight with the proper TLC?

One pic is with flash (trying to show the translucence of the scales - maybe catalin?) and one without. One side reads "duble duck SPECIAL No 1" an the other side reads "BRESDUCK dubl duck SOLINGEN-GERMANY." The blade edge itself is shiny, and seems to be free of any dings or nicks.

 

[professorchaos]

Sure, it should clean up and shave just fine. May not be a looker - I can't tell from the pictures - but cosmetic defects won't stop it from shaving. It has a lot of uneven hone wear, so don't pay much.

 

[Chickpea McGee]

maybe some rubbing compound will lighten up the steel. Sounds like it is safe to give it a go.

 

[professorchaos]

Yea you can use rubbing compounds, metal polish (jeweler's rouge, white rouge, maas...). Wear a mask. You don't want to breath that stuff.

 

[Chickpea McGee]

I did want to clarify one thing. The darkened steel is NOT dirt or corrosion. It appears to be the way the blade was made. Could this be the blued steel reference I have seen elsewhere?

 

[professorchaos]

Looks more like the patina metal will develop with age... It could be the way it is made but in the thousands of pictures of straight razors I have seen, I have yet to see a mass produced one with blued blade. You'll see razors with blued a tang and/or spine.

 

[Chickpea McGee]

Cool, thanks.

 

[DoughBoy68]

Be sure to watch those fingers around the edge when cleaning the blade, I nearly cut the end of my middle finger off.......I told everyone I was trying to make it the same length as the two fingers beside it.

 

[holli4pirating]

It looks to me like a frown, not just a taper, so it will probably take some work on the hones to get her shave ready. As for the dullness of the blade, that is entirely personal preference.

 

[shavewithbigelow]

It looks to me like a frown, not just a taper, so it will probably take some work on the hones to get her shave ready. As for the dullness of the blade, that is entirely personal preference.

+1

Metal polish should shine it up real nice. Carbon steel naturally darkens with age and/or use.

 

[Thebigspendur]

I don't know how much it's going for and I don't know your skill level at restoration but it will take quite a bit of work to get that up to snuff and frankly most DDs especially the special #1s can be had for a good price in much better condition than that on Eboy.

 

[Chickpea McGee]

Thanks everyone. Looks like my search continues for a close to shave ready razor. I put about $40 into the purchase, and it is now apparent I don't have the skill level required to make this razor work for me. Should I be able to get more than half of my money back on bst?

 

[SliceOfLife]

What's your lowest grit hone?

I took out MUCH worse frowns than that with only ~ 1 hr work on an XC (220grit DMT) and a 100 or 200 grit carborundum.

Butterknife the toe and heel on carbo
Rebevel on DMT
Butterknife toe and heel again
Rebevel on DMT
Repeat this until it's as straight as any man within twenty feet of Angelina Jolie.

You can probably butterknife on the DMT, but I considered the carbo worthless anyway, so I figured why put any wear on my DMT when I didn't have to.

It looks like toe is almost true there, you'll just have to wear down the heel.

I'd say $25-30 shipped isn't unfair for that razor.


I also corrected a worse frown once on a belt sander in about one minute, but I wouldn't recommend that for anyone who isn't doing it purely out of curiosity.

 

[richmondesi]

You can speed up the process significantly by forgetting about breadknifing razors and just hold the spine up approximately 45 degrees while doing circles to remove a frown. Then, with a layer of tape, you can reset that bevel... Prolly save you 1/2 the time if not more.

No need to thank me

 

[SliceOfLife]

Bah, then it'd be addicted to tape, and it'd look like it had a stroke for the rest of its days (check out the spine wear on that thing).

 

[richmondesi]

Bah, then it'd be addicted to tape, and it'd look like it had a stroke for the rest of its days (check out the spine wear on that thing).

That is NOT caused by tape!

 

[SliceOfLife]

You're saying to skip correcting the hone wear though aren't you? By holding spine off stone and then honing with tape? Tape will let you get a shave-ready without correcting the hone wear, but when you want to touch up won't you always have to retape, since the uneven spine width (that already exists in those pictures, not a result of taping) will prevent even edge pressure without taping?

 

[richmondesi]

You're saying to skip correcting the hone wear though aren't you? By holding spine off stone and then honing with tape? Tape will let you get a shave-ready without correcting the hone wear, but when you want to touch up won't you always have to retape, since the uneven spine width (that already exists in those pictures, not a result of taping) will prevent even edge pressure without taping?

You aren't "correcting" hone wear by honing out frowns without tape. That's for sure... The only way that I' know to do it is by regrinding it. A good session on a buffing wheel in the right hands can help (and someone like Max or Glen might be able to do that with a buffing wheel (they can help it some I know).

Besides, retaping to do touch ups is not problematic in the least.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Where do you draw a distinction between grinding and honing? Because I've taken several razors with frowns like that, and by using a low grit stone, wore an uneven strip of hone wear into an even one which gave me the result I was looking for (straight edge that touches the stone along its entire length without pressure). That's what I mean by correcting the hone wear. Getting the razor back to where it can be honed without tricks or aid (or tape) on a flat, 3" wide stone.

Honing with tape may not be much trouble. But if I saw a razor on eBay with no spine wear at the heel, 3mm of spine wear at the toe, and a straight edge. As someone who doesn't use tape, I'd take one glance at it and say no thanks. The work to correct the spine wear as it is now may be a little more trouble than just correcting the edge, but if you do just correct the edge now then decide later you want to correct the spine, you're looking at what is in my experience a much more troublesome endeavour.

 

[richmondesi]

Where do you draw a distinction between grinding and honing? Because I've taken several razors with frowns like that, and by using a low grit stone, wore an uneven strip of hone wear into an even one which gave me the result I was looking for (straight edge that touches the stone along its entire length without pressure). That's what I mean by correcting the hone wear. Getting the razor back to where it can be honed without tricks or aid (or tape) on a flat, 3" wide stone.

Honing with tape may not be much trouble. But if I saw a razor on eBay with no spine wear at the heel, 3mm of spine wear at the toe, and a straight edge. As someone who doesn't use tape, I'd take one glance at it and say no thanks. The work to correct the spine wear as it is now may be a little more trouble than just correcting the edge, but if you do just correct the edge now then decide later you want to correct the spine, you're looking at what is in my experience, a much more troublesome endeavour.

Some people might have the energy to go back and forth with you about tape, but I'm not one of them. Making the hone wear wide and uniform is not "correcting" hone wear. If the only goal is getting a shaving edge, I can take that razor as is and hone it to a great shaving edge. I know because I've done a lot of them.

I'd say no thanks to razors like that too, but for far different reasons.