I'll give it a go eventually when I obtain a cutting instrument. I'm not looking for perfection. It need only fit the razor adequately for a shave. Not entering it in a reproduction competition or anything. Do I need to get the nurses to up your meds again?
Making Segal Blades
- Thread starter Chan Eil Whiskers
- Start date
What a great start to the day!
Just walked into my basement and stepped in something wet. Looking up I see I have a leak on one of my cold water lines. Drip...drip...drip. Moved everything out of the way (because leaks never happen where they're supposed to) to get a bucket under it. I do all my own plumbing but nothing is open this hour on a Sunday morning so I can get what I need to fix it. That won't be for over 2 hours from now.
I may be getting my cuticle scissors at some point today but by then and depending on other factors (delivery time, getting this water leak stopped, other end-of-weekend list items) I'm going to at least get a blade cut if not shave with it.
But I did wake up to find an awesome father's day card from my daughter
Hope you are all having a great Sunday morning!
Just walked into my basement and stepped in something wet. Looking up I see I have a leak on one of my cold water lines. Drip...drip...drip. Moved everything out of the way (because leaks never happen where they're supposed to) to get a bucket under it. I do all my own plumbing but nothing is open this hour on a Sunday morning so I can get what I need to fix it. That won't be for over 2 hours from now.
I may be getting my cuticle scissors at some point today but by then and depending on other factors (delivery time, getting this water leak stopped, other end-of-weekend list items) I'm going to at least get a blade cut if not shave with it.
But I did wake up to find an awesome father's day card from my daughter
Hope you are all having a great Sunday morning!At a connection or in the line/pipe? Copper / Plastic or Pex? Hope you get it fixed easy enough and have a good rest of the day. Heading for coffee before my shave now.....................What a great start to the day!
Just walked into my basement and stepped in something wet. Looking up I see I have a leak on one of my cold water lines. Drip...drip...drip. Moved everything out of the way (because leaks never happen where they're supposed to) to get a bucket under it. I do all my own plumbing but nothing is open this hour on a Sunday morning so I can get what I need to fix it. That won't be for over 2 hours from now.
I may be getting my cuticle scissors at some point today but by then and depending on other factors (delivery time, getting this water leak stopped, other end-of-weekend list items) I'm going to at least get a blade cut if not shave with it.
But I did wake up to find an awesome father's day card from my daughter
It's 1/2" copper. Along a straight run there once was a T off of it that fed a deep sink. The sink was later moved and the end of the T was cut and capped. Depending on what Lowes has I'll probably cut the section with the T out and use quick connectors instead of soldering again.
My entire house is copper. I should probably investigate something like plastic one of these days. It's been a very long time since I have been in the plumbing aisle.
I prefer copper and solder myself and don't care for the sharkbite fittings but they turn everyone into a DIY'r now. I'd stay with copper over cpvc although the latter is easier to work with. Everyone seems to go with pex nowadays but I'm old school I guess. Hope it goes well for you.
I hear ya on soldering. I always do that on new runs or large section replacements. Today I cheated, cut out a two foot section and used slip connectors. But I'm back in bid'ness!
My main water line enters the house from the street and runs throughout the house from my basement so I'm lucky and could see the leak. For folks that have lines that run under the house, I don't know when they would have ever known something like that was going on.
Sorry to derail...I now return to the subject at hand...making contemporary Segal blades
I hear ya on soldering. I always do that on new runs or large section replacements. Today I cheated, cut out a two foot section and used slip connectors. But I'm back in bid'ness!
My main water line enters the house from the street and runs throughout the house from my basement so I'm lucky and could see the leak. For folks that have lines that run under the house, I don't know when they would have ever known something like that was going on.
Sorry to derail...I now return to the subject at hand...making contemporary Segal blades
NICE WORK!!
No worry. Jim will just be coming out of the fog from upped meds and will be non the wiser.I hear ya on soldering. I always do that on new runs or large section replacements. Today I cheated, cut out a two foot section and used slip connectors. But I'm back in bid'ness!
My main water line enters the house from the street and runs throughout the house from my basement so I'm lucky and could see the leak. For folks that have lines that run under the house, I don't know when they would have ever known something like that was going on.
Sorry to derail...I now return to the subject at hand...making contemporary Segal blades
Poker faces everone.....
Haven't got my scissors yet.
- Thread starter
- #50
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
Happy Father's Day, gentlemen.
I'm glad the plumbing problems are ironed out so we can get back to serious business. As the day went on yesterday, and now this morning, I realize how close my Schaeffer shave was yesterday. Was that beginner's luck? Does the razor alway shave close?
The shave was my usual shave. I always go N-S first. Then, S-N. Then R-L on my jawline and neck. The R-L pass is very multidirectional, very jiggy, etc. None of my passes are as simple as described, but the first are the most simple.
I do a lot of buffing on my chin and lower lip (especially there). My upper lip gets a little buffing. My shave doesn't vary with the razor.
When it comes to WTG, XTG, and ATG, I don't even attempt anymore to follow the usual recommendations. My face is easy enough except for my lower lip which is extremely difficult to smooth. My neck map is like the shifting sands of the Sahara. In general my first two passes are XTG and my third pass(es) is(are) ATG.
I have no idea what the grain is on my neck; I think there are two ATG directions most places.
I suspect most of us come to some sort of similar arrangement with our whiskers. It's not like anybody else has the exact patterns and problems we have so why wouldn't our solutions be unique to our skin and beard?
Yesterday I shaved as usual, but got a closer than usual shave. Nothing was different except the razor. I think this one is a keeper.
I look forward to hearing more about your experiences as you drag these Segal and Schaeffer razors out of the drawers they're stuck in. I also see a good many of them on eBay. Maybe that's a recent fluke, but I think I'm just now looking for and noticing them. This silver razor is a lot better than the gold Segal I bid on and won, but the gold razor is pretty good, too.
Some I see look pretty funky. I have no informed idea how well they clean up. Just guessing, they clean up okay. Brass plated and all, like vintage Gillettes and such. I might find another one if the price is right, and clean it up.
Making the blades isn't that hard now that I know what's involved and understand the blades I make will be good but not as good as Segal Blades.
Happy shaves,
Jim
I'm glad the plumbing problems are ironed out so we can get back to serious business. As the day went on yesterday, and now this morning, I realize how close my Schaeffer shave was yesterday. Was that beginner's luck? Does the razor alway shave close?
The shave was my usual shave. I always go N-S first. Then, S-N. Then R-L on my jawline and neck. The R-L pass is very multidirectional, very jiggy, etc. None of my passes are as simple as described, but the first are the most simple.
I do a lot of buffing on my chin and lower lip (especially there). My upper lip gets a little buffing. My shave doesn't vary with the razor.
When it comes to WTG, XTG, and ATG, I don't even attempt anymore to follow the usual recommendations. My face is easy enough except for my lower lip which is extremely difficult to smooth. My neck map is like the shifting sands of the Sahara. In general my first two passes are XTG and my third pass(es) is(are) ATG.
I have no idea what the grain is on my neck; I think there are two ATG directions most places.
I suspect most of us come to some sort of similar arrangement with our whiskers. It's not like anybody else has the exact patterns and problems we have so why wouldn't our solutions be unique to our skin and beard?
Yesterday I shaved as usual, but got a closer than usual shave. Nothing was different except the razor. I think this one is a keeper.
I look forward to hearing more about your experiences as you drag these Segal and Schaeffer razors out of the drawers they're stuck in. I also see a good many of them on eBay. Maybe that's a recent fluke, but I think I'm just now looking for and noticing them. This silver razor is a lot better than the gold Segal I bid on and won, but the gold razor is pretty good, too.
Some I see look pretty funky. I have no informed idea how well they clean up. Just guessing, they clean up okay. Brass plated and all, like vintage Gillettes and such. I might find another one if the price is right, and clean it up.
Making the blades isn't that hard now that I know what's involved and understand the blades I make will be good but not as good as Segal Blades.
Happy shaves,
Jim
Got my scissors from the mailbox and started cutting some blades. I ended up getting a really nice German made set that made quick work of the job of cutting a DE blade.
At first I started with a Polsilver SI but didn't like the way it turned out. If you do the marker outline method you have to generously cut outside the line or you'll leave material that will interfere with the raised part of the baseplate.
Then going back to snip off tiny bits to correct that gets problematic due to the density of the blade (scissors want to slip rather than bite on very tiny edge trimming jobs).
Ultimately the Polsilver was fitting but when I looked at the blade exposure, I decided to trash it and start over. WAY uneven from side to side due to being too conservative on the cut.
At point A. extra metal is preventing the razor from using the inner tabs at point B. from centering the blade. Trimming off that extra metal at A. proved more challenging than it looked like it should.
So like Jim stated earlier, the best route is to just freehand the cut, so that if you err in the cut, it should be to providing more room than needed for the center hump. This will permit the inner end tabs to do their job of positioning the blade side to side. The result will be a properly centered blade.
The only other issue as I've mentioned before is the loss of .002" thickness using modern blades. With an original thickness .006" Segal blade there is a positive closure of the TTO knob (a bit of added tension) whereas the thinner blades allow the TTO knob to "just" close. I periodically checked that during the shave to make sure I hadn't bumped the TTO knob enough to loosen it (it never did actually).
It's been a weird day and I didn't get to the shave till way later than I normally do, so I just opted for a one pass SAS to test my new Personna blade. I will say the shave was fine on the cheeks but didn't feel terribly smooth on the neck. The Personna blade did a passable job and of course was much sharper than the Segal carbon steel blade I attempted earlier.
Left to be determined will be how other well regarded blades will perform in the Segal. I used the Personna because I have a bunch and don't really use them, so it's no loss if I destroy several in the process of trimming them.
Shave on, Segal owners!
At first I started with a Polsilver SI but didn't like the way it turned out. If you do the marker outline method you have to generously cut outside the line or you'll leave material that will interfere with the raised part of the baseplate.
Then going back to snip off tiny bits to correct that gets problematic due to the density of the blade (scissors want to slip rather than bite on very tiny edge trimming jobs).
Ultimately the Polsilver was fitting but when I looked at the blade exposure, I decided to trash it and start over. WAY uneven from side to side due to being too conservative on the cut.
At point A. extra metal is preventing the razor from using the inner tabs at point B. from centering the blade. Trimming off that extra metal at A. proved more challenging than it looked like it should.
So like Jim stated earlier, the best route is to just freehand the cut, so that if you err in the cut, it should be to providing more room than needed for the center hump. This will permit the inner end tabs to do their job of positioning the blade side to side. The result will be a properly centered blade.
The only other issue as I've mentioned before is the loss of .002" thickness using modern blades. With an original thickness .006" Segal blade there is a positive closure of the TTO knob (a bit of added tension) whereas the thinner blades allow the TTO knob to "just" close. I periodically checked that during the shave to make sure I hadn't bumped the TTO knob enough to loosen it (it never did actually).
It's been a weird day and I didn't get to the shave till way later than I normally do, so I just opted for a one pass SAS to test my new Personna blade. I will say the shave was fine on the cheeks but didn't feel terribly smooth on the neck. The Personna blade did a passable job and of course was much sharper than the Segal carbon steel blade I attempted earlier.
Left to be determined will be how other well regarded blades will perform in the Segal. I used the Personna because I have a bunch and don't really use them, so it's no loss if I destroy several in the process of trimming them.
Shave on, Segal owners!
Cool, thanks for the update. Nice scissors
- Thread starter
- #53
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
Lane, excellent post. Very helpful.
I would like to duplicate the Segal (by cutting a modern blade), but it's impossible.
You got pretty close with the SI blade (above).
However, I don't think it necessary to get this close.
The better blades of the ones I made preserve the material at your point B, but eliminate the material at point A. Mine seem to work fine. Point B is what holds the blade I think.
Your clones are much prettier than mine. My guess is your scissors are far better.
Question? Do you think more heavy duty fingernail scissors might work even better?
I know blades are incredibly variable with our different skins and whiskers, but the Polsilver blades seem to work great for me.
Your clones really look great!
Happy shaves,
Jim
Last edited:
Lane, excellent post. Very helpful.
View attachment 891629
I would like to duplicate the Segal (by cutting a modern blade), but it's impossible.
View attachment 891630
You got pretty close with the SI blade (above).
However, I don't think it necessary to get this close.
The better blades of the ones I made preserve the material at your point B, but eliminate the material at point A. Mine seem to work fine. Point B is what holds the blade I think.
Your clones are much prettier than mine. My guess is your scissors are far better.
Question? Do you think more heavy duty fingernail scissors might work even better?
I know blades are incredibly variable with our different skins and whiskers, but the Polsilver blades seem to work great for me.
Your clones really look great!
Happy shaves,
Jim
Thanks Jim
The cuticle scissors work well when I have enough material on either side of the cutting blades. When I'm trying to trim off only a small sliver, the cutting edges of the cuticle scissors have a tendency to slip off. The end result is I have to go deeper into the material to allow the jaws to get good purchase on the blade being trimmed, with a much greater amount of material being removed than I need.
What I've done since my last post is order what is called cuticle nippers. These resemble diagonal cutting pliers but are scaled down in size. It's just a theory but I'm hoping the added rigidity of the jaws and leverage that can be applied by their handle will permit trimming of blades where only a small degree of material is to be removed. The cuticle nippers I ordered aren't terribly expensive, somewhere around $10.
I should be getting them this week and time permitting, will post some follow on results
- Thread starter
- #55
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
Thanks Jim
The cuticle scissors work well when I have enough material on either side of the cutting blades. When I'm trying to trim off only a small sliver, the cutting edges of the cuticle scissors have a tendency to slip off. The end result is I have to go deeper into the material to allow the jaws to get good purchase on the blade being trimmed, with a much greater amount of material being removed than I need.
What I've done since my last post is order what is called cuticle nippers. These resemble diagonal cutting pliers but are scaled down in size. It's just a theory but I'm hoping the added rigidity of the jaws and leverage that can be applied by their handle will permit trimming of blades where only a small degree of material is to be removed. The cuticle nippers I ordered aren't terribly expensive, somewhere around $10.
I should be getting them this week and time permitting, will post some follow on results
I know exactly what you mean about the scissors slipping off the small edges. I've looked at the nippers, too. They should work well, but their downside is they take tiny bites and do not make long, smooth cuts.
My thinking about using fingernail scissors (more heavy duty than cuticle scissors) came from this post (I think). Sounds like this gentleman is an old hand at making Segal Blade clones.
I have several blades already made. The way blades last for me there's no need for me to make more for a good while so I'm not in any hurry to spend $25 to buy German fingernail scissors. Probably down the road I will. In the meantime I'll use the blades I already made, drool over your prettier blades, and enjoy my shaves when I use the Schaeffer.
I've not shaved with my gold Segal yet, and am in no hurry to use it. The Schaeffer is such a nice razor.
Happy shaves,
Jim
- Thread starter
- #56
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
Got my scissors from the mailbox and started cutting some blades. I ended up getting a really nice German made set that made quick work of the job of cutting a DE blade.
At first I started with a Polsilver SI but didn't like the way it turned out. If you do the marker outline method you have to generously cut outside the line or you'll leave material that will interfere with the raised part of the baseplate.
Then going back to snip off tiny bits to correct that gets problematic due to the density of the blade (scissors want to slip rather than bite on very tiny edge trimming jobs).
Ultimately the Polsilver was fitting but when I looked at the blade exposure, I decided to trash it and start over. WAY uneven from side to side due to being too conservative on the cut.
At point A. extra metal is preventing the razor from using the inner tabs at point B. from centering the blade. Trimming off that extra metal at A. proved more challenging than it looked like it should.
So like Jim stated earlier, the best route is to just freehand the cut, so that if you err in the cut, it should be to providing more room than needed for the center hump. This will permit the inner end tabs to do their job of positioning the blade side to side. The result will be a properly centered blade.
The only other issue as I've mentioned before is the loss of .002" thickness using modern blades. With an original thickness .006" Segal blade there is a positive closure of the TTO knob (a bit of added tension) whereas the thinner blades allow the TTO knob to "just" close. I periodically checked that during the shave to make sure I hadn't bumped the TTO knob enough to loosen it (it never did actually).
It's been a weird day and I didn't get to the shave till way later than I normally do, so I just opted for a one pass SAS to test my new Personna blade. I will say the shave was fine on the cheeks but didn't feel terribly smooth on the neck. The Personna blade did a passable job and of course was much sharper than the Segal carbon steel blade I attempted earlier.
Left to be determined will be how other well regarded blades will perform in the Segal. I used the Personna because I have a bunch and don't really use them, so it's no loss if I destroy several in the process of trimming them.
Shave on, Segal owners!
Lane, what did you use to draw the outline of the Segal Blade onto the modern blade (assuming you didn't freehand it)?
I used a sharpie (fine point) and it did a crummy job of the task I think. Not that I'm blaming the tool as I picked it out.
Thanks,
Jim
Jim, I used a fine point Sharpie marker on the first blade but quickly found that it was faster to just "eye" the cut. I also have noticed a few extremely minor differences in the pics that show the differences between the Segal blade and new blades.
I'm not home and can't access my photo software at the moment to post a pic, but if you look at the positioning tabs (all the way at the very ends of the interior blade cut out), you can see there is a distinct difference in the profile between the two blades. On the Segal blade, there is a portion snipped or relieved from the inner tab. This explains why I have to press these tabs down to get them to seat, even when there is no interference along other parts of the blade that runs along the raised baseplate hump.
You may have already known this but it just caught my eye this morning. I don't know if accommodating that would make things better or worse...if I don't cut exactly the same amount of material from each positioning tab, it could skew side to side blade alignment. Hmmm.....
- Thread starter
- #58
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
Yes!
However, even with my razor this morning showing more blade on one side, and a slightly skewed angle, too, the shave was fine.
If I have time later today I'll try to get some close up pics.
- Thread starter
- #60
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
Cool. No hurry.
I wish I were decent with my photoshop-clone program, but I'm terrible at it. I need lessons from a teenager.
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