JPO's Straight Razor Journey

[JPO]

I decided to take this upurtunity to share some of my straight razor and shaving adventures
I am working my way through a bundle of Swedish vintage razors.
Today I decided to bring an old beater to life.
The goal was not to create a cabinet show piece.
This was my first attempt at this.
It was allot more work then i thaught.

New scales was needed.

The only material I had laying around was some oak wood.
The razor cleaned up well. Some large chips was also removed.

New scales were cut.

A wedge is pinned and glued

The razor is now honed and ready to shave with. Hopefully the steel is going to hold up.

 

[psfred]

Oak makes perfectly good scales. I would put a thin sheet of PET between the scales and razor though to prevent contact when wet, as the oak has plenty of tannin that will blacken the razor tang and stain the wood blue. If you use a piece from a water bottle (assuming you are as over-supplied with them there as we are here) they are invisible.

 

[JPO]

Oak makes perfectly good scales. I would put a thin sheet of PET between the scales and razor though to prevent contact when wet, as the oak has plenty of tannin that will blacken the razor tang and stain the wood blue. If you use a piece from a water bottle (assuming you are as over-supplied with them there as we are here) they are invisible.

I did use a lacquer layer on the inside, in addition to some brass washers.
So, there should not be any contact with the steel.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

I have made at least 3 sets of scales from oak and a couple from walnut. I like it. I've used various exterior grade polyurethane finishes and it seems to hold up well.

 

[thombrogan]

Thank you for sharing your journal with us, @JPO !

I remember reading about your self-fabricated convex hones and experiences with Tatara brand safety razors.

 

[JPO]

Another Swedish razor got cleaned up today.
Klas Tornblom 5/8.
It had some pitting at the edge, and corrosion at the pivot pin.
Condition as received.

The horn scales got sanded and polished.

Pivot pin cleaning is a dirty job.
I have not found a fast and easy method for this. I didn't want to unpin it.

Chips and pitting removed using;
Dmt 8000, Namito jnat to shobudani finisher.
This steel is just as nice as any other Swedish razor i have. Really hard steel.

Ready for tomorrow's shave test

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Are you sure those are horn scales? Both of the Tornbloms I have had, and several other Swede's from that era, are hard rubber. They stand up well to use but I've had terrible luck unpinning them as it is very brittle. Very nice little razor, that style was a favorite of Arne (Polarbeard), one of our Swedish forum members who sadly doesn't post here much any more.

 

[JPO]

Are you sure those are horn scales? Both of the Tornbloms I have had, and several other Swede's from that era, are hard rubber. They stand up well to use but I've had terrible luck unpinning them as it is very brittle. Very nice little razor, that style was a favorite of Arne (Polarbeard), one of our Swedish forum members who sadly doesn't post here much any more.

After closer inspection i think you are correct
The seller said it was horn.
As you say, these scales hold up quite well.
It was sold for 20 usd delivered, and had no hone marks.
A good deal in my opinion.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Yes, that's a very good deal for a very nice little razor. Only thing I don't like about the hard rubber scales is that when pinned without collars, as they often were, the pins can eventually pull through a bit, and then there is no tightening them without drilling them out. And if you drill them, you want to make sure you get every bit of pin out of the scale before trying to pry them off. Ask me how I know.

 

[JPO]

I am waiting for a Washita stone that will probably arrive in a few days.
I plan to shape this convex.
This is hard work, so i needed a better solution for this type of task.
So, I created an adjustable concave diamond lapping plate.
The circular shape allows for a different shape along two axis, which will create a convex stone.
There is a magnet in the middle.
I have a 320 and a 600 plate. So, this should make life easier.
Being lazy can spark ideas
I probably need to drill some holes to avoid creating a mess.

My wife asked me what I was up to. Before I could answer here she said, please don't tell me

 

[JPO]

Working on some reference numbers to get an idea of the settings that will work.
The transverse direction is probably not as important as the main longitudinal direction, which cuts in the concavity.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

My wife asked me what I was up to. Before I could answer here she said, please don't tell me

I'm still chuckling about this.

 

[cajunrph]

I am waiting for a Washita stone that will probably arrive in a few days.
I plan to shape this convex.
This is hard work, so i needed a better solution for this type of task.
So, I created an adjustable concave diamond lapping plate.
The circular shape allows for a different shape along two axis, which will create a convex stone.
There is a magnet in the middle.
I have a 320 and a 600 plate. So, this should make life easier.
Being lazy can spark ideas
I probably need to drill some holes to avoid creating a mess.

My wife asked me what I was up to. Before I could answer here she said, please don't tell me

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What are you going to tell her when she asks you where the Pizza Peel is? Haha. Best of luck with the honing. I will be following along.

 

[JPO]

What are you going to tell her when she asks you where the Pizza Peel is? Haha. Best of luck with the honing. I will be following along.

Shhh. She is sitting here next to me

 

[JPO]

It certainly worked. It took 3 minutes to shape this Washita

 

[JPO]

Degreasing time.
I am not sure how to tell if I managed to get the gunk out of this one.
It's not repelling water, so maybe it's as clean as it needs to be?
There was allot of nasty gunk that got released

 

[thombrogan]

I thought it would have been clean enough once you washed off its corners

 

[JPO]

I thought it would have been clean enough once you washed off its corners

Yes, but it also has a flat side that had some gunk in the pores. Lapping on that side was not enough.

 

[albsat]

Nice journal @JPO! Following.

 

[JPO]

More tinkering and honing today

CV Heljestrand test razor.
I convexed a small vetrified diamond plate today. This was used to cut in a new bevel on this 5/8 razor just to test the speed of this small plate.
It was previously honed with tape.
This time it was without tape.
So, dead edge and a new bevel angle.

After two minutes I was done.
8 strokes on the Shapton g7 1.2
5 strokes on the 0.85 G7.
I don't have the 16k glass stone. However, if this is the same stone I am not able to get the same issues people are reporting with this stone.

The edge is now skin pealing sharp.
I usually like a more mellow edge. I can always just tone it down a little with a natural stone later.

So, a powerful mini setup that can hone a razor from start to finish.
There is not enough resin on a full sized plate for this, so it needed to be done with a small plate.

0.85 shapton edge