Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
Folks,
I bought an old French razor and have questions....
It's a typical old French razor, roughly made would be a kind word compared to modern blades. It's marked with a maker's mark (I think, sometimes theses names are shop or individual's names) and 521, neither of which I found in the on-line list of French marques. Does anyone know anything about the maker/vintage? See image of marque, courtesy of the seller.
Next, I put a bit of honewear on the spine taking out an area of "sparklies" on the edge, not chips, just a small flat area probably where it hit the scales since it appears the blade is not straight or the pivot hole has been drilled unsquare with the blade; tapping the pin on the close side does nothing. The blade is a near wedge, and the hollowgrind has some ripples in it. So while I'd prefer to not put this kind of wear on it simply for cosmetic purposes, does anyone have any tips or tricks for avoiding it on these rough old razors short of taping the spine? The bevel is fairly even now though a little larger on one side than the other. BTW, I do "torque" the blade to the edge and that seems fairly effective at minimizing the spinewear.
And as it turns out, the steel seems incredibly hard. I don't usually buy razors with visible edge defects that have to be ground out, and I was pretty pleased with my initial inspection that revealed only "sparklies" on the edge, no chips as such. But it took me about 1-1/2 hours on a Norton India stone to get them out, and about 3 times as long as normal on the finishers to finish, say 150 strokes or more. Slurry darkened at a noticeably slower rate on all the finishers I tried. The stuff seems TI hard or harder! I'd expect old steel to be soft and mellow, but not this guy.
Thanks for any comments, advice, and help!
Cheers, Steve
I bought an old French razor and have questions....
It's a typical old French razor, roughly made would be a kind word compared to modern blades. It's marked with a maker's mark (I think, sometimes theses names are shop or individual's names) and 521, neither of which I found in the on-line list of French marques. Does anyone know anything about the maker/vintage? See image of marque, courtesy of the seller.
Next, I put a bit of honewear on the spine taking out an area of "sparklies" on the edge, not chips, just a small flat area probably where it hit the scales since it appears the blade is not straight or the pivot hole has been drilled unsquare with the blade; tapping the pin on the close side does nothing. The blade is a near wedge, and the hollowgrind has some ripples in it. So while I'd prefer to not put this kind of wear on it simply for cosmetic purposes, does anyone have any tips or tricks for avoiding it on these rough old razors short of taping the spine? The bevel is fairly even now though a little larger on one side than the other. BTW, I do "torque" the blade to the edge and that seems fairly effective at minimizing the spinewear.
And as it turns out, the steel seems incredibly hard. I don't usually buy razors with visible edge defects that have to be ground out, and I was pretty pleased with my initial inspection that revealed only "sparklies" on the edge, no chips as such. But it took me about 1-1/2 hours on a Norton India stone to get them out, and about 3 times as long as normal on the finishers to finish, say 150 strokes or more. Slurry darkened at a noticeably slower rate on all the finishers I tried. The stuff seems TI hard or harder! I'd expect old steel to be soft and mellow, but not this guy.
Thanks for any comments, advice, and help!
Cheers, Steve