Lotus, fabrication d'art

[musicman980]

Lotus fabrication d’art (P. Hospital’s luxury brand)

On the hunt for Le Grelots, I came across this beauty. Over 13/16 and a sweet thumb notch, but it’s seen better days.

 

[musicman980]

The same DMT/pocket hone method I used on my Grelot was also used on this Lotus. If you want to learn about this method, reference my other post Le Grelot - back from the dead. Most of the pitting looked surface level, almost like soap scum, but It was actually quite deep. I cleared away almost all of the pitting in under two hours.

When the tang is DMT’ed, you can see the divot the stamp makes. That is as far as I could go without digging into the stamp, which was unfortunately that shallow from the factory. The spine was de-pitted by holding the blade diagonally across the DMT and closer to a corner so that the two points of contact on the curved spine were closer together. Using a sawing motion, and slowly rotating the razor to cover all parts of the round spine, all the pitting was gone in 30 seconds to a minute. THAT’s why I love the DMT method.

After the DMT:



After the 1000 grit pocket hone rub, and maybe worn 220 sandpaper? Surface rust is already forming as I moved my attention from the blade faces to the tang area:



After 400 grit sandpaper:

 

[musicman980]

1000, 1500, 2500, 3000, flitz polish. I noticed that I had an easier time working out scratches if I use pairs of grits of roughly the same grit range. As in the 1000 and 1500 pair, and then the 2500 and 3000 pair. The pitting continued to diminish throughout the process, and now it’s almost completely gone. Always use fresh sandpaper in these upper ranges, and use every square inch of the paper.

The polish is even better than my restored Le Grelot, and they make a nice pair. The only thing is… which one gets the pre-CITES ivory, and which one gets the pink ivory?

 

[Ice-Man]

musicman980 Both of them have come up beautiful Sir!!!

 

[Gamma]

Nice Lotus - haven't seen one for a long while.

 

[musicman980]

musicman980 Both of them have come up beautiful Sir!!!

Nice Lotus - haven't seen one for a long while.

Thanks guys, I'm really satisfied with it. I bought it assuming it was a 1/4 grind, because it's essentially the Grelot 357 blank. It looks more like a half hollow though? Hard to tell.

If it was a 1/4 hollow I'd totally do an homage to the B&B LE Le Grelot from years ago - I've got pink ivory. Then I'd save the pre-CITES real ivory for the other Le Grelot.

 

[mdunn]

fantastic job. im curious about the DMT method though, I read your other thread as well, but im still not sure exactly how you do the blades face with it? (or maybe I just need another coffee)...

Something like this?

 

[naughtilus]

Wow! That's impressive, well done.

 

[musicman980]

fantastic job. im curious about the DMT method though, I read your other thread as well, but im still not sure exactly how you do the blades face with it? (or maybe I just need another coffee)...

Let’s get to work


The spine is actually the part off the DMT. While working on the concave area, you want the edge to be as close to the DMT as possible without it actually touching it. This lets more of the blade come in contact with the DMT (still a very small amount though)

The stabilizer gets in the way though, so you would have to bring the blade to a corner of the DMT so the stabilizer hangs off. As you flip the blade over to do the other side, the corner changes.

As for blades without a stabilizer, I found that you can utilize the entire edge of the DMT, as long as it’s the part of the blade below the tang. The grind can get super thin, and if the full follow actually flattens out like a rattler grind you can cover more surface area on the blade. See the last pic for this.


So work the blade in a circular motion in sections, using pressure, starting below the spine hone wear, by moving the spine slowly away from the DMT like so:




And if the hollow flattens out like some hollow grinds, or you want to get rid of that belly, you can effectively work on 1/8-1/4” areas at one time. Imagine this part of the blade was flat on the DMT, super quick work:

 

[musicman980]

Wow! That's impressive, well done.

Thanks a lot! I’ll put up pictures of the scale material as well when I get a chance.

 

[mdunn]

Let’s get to work...

Ahh yeah I see.. awesome idea.. something I might have to try.

Thanks for the detailed reply! (coffee was essential)

 

[musicman980]

The ivory has been removed from another blade via pin vise, surgery successful. I don’t know which one to put it on, here’s some pics. I can adjust the height the blade sits in the scales with a new wedge so keep that in mind. The other would get this pink ivory, or I have a ton of ebony.

 

[musicman980]

So the pink ivory was a nightmare. I only have hand tools here and ended up chipping it up - it's good for wedges now I guess.

That left the other ivory, which suits it well. Wedge is faux bone. It stands a smidgen over 6/8 now, making it the smallest razor in my rotation.

 

[Ice-Man]

So the pink ivory was a nightmare. I only have hand tools here and ended up chipping it up - it's good for wedges now I guess.

That left the other ivory, which suits it well. Wedge is faux bone. It stands a smidgen over 6/8 now, making it the smallest razor in my rotation.

View attachment 1027495 View attachment 1027493 View attachment 1027494

Wow mate that has come up beautiful, & the Ivory really is a match for that blade looks like it was made for it.
Overall that has come out fantastic a stunning restore for sure Well Done Sir!!!

 

[musicman980]

Had it's first test run, and it worked phenomenally. I've restored enough razors to say that the first shave is always amazing, so we'll see how it holds up. It was back to back with a W&B 15/16 quarter hollow, and it completely outperformed it - might be the smaller bevel angle.