I finally got around to doing some personal blades that I knew I'd be keeping. I know a lot of people aren't fans of shell, but I am. I'm not a huge fan of wood so there.
First up is a 15/16 Rich Abr Herder #14 half hollow. I bought this blade over 6 months ago for the costly sum of $24 shipped. I had a very small amount of red acrylic backed Abalone shell remaining and had to use a small blade (length wise) to even squeeze some scales out of it. I had to use the entire width of my shell blank to even make scales for this and they are still shorter than my preference. Wedge is black G10.
I'm really intrigued on this as I've read that the Filly and Palmera #14 blanks all came from one place, and I wonder if this is from the same blanks. I'll say this - I honed this up to a La Veinette coticule edge and it is most definitely one of the best edges I've encountered. It rivals my Palmera 14 easily and is now a top 5 shaver in my collection. I will never part with this one.
Next up is a 15/16 Erik Anton Berg full hollow. You don't see swedes this large too often and when I saw it I had to buy it. Blade had some deep scratches and some pitting so I had to start at 80 greaseless and even then there are traces remaining. Scales are black acrylic backed real Abalone Shell. Wedge is a Royal Blue G10 lined Forest Green G10 spacer.
Next up is a 6/8 DD Satinedge that I cleaned up. I'll give the seller credit for making the pictures of this one look much better than it was when it showed up in person. The whole blade was black when I received it. On the front side on the top of the spine near the toe was some nasty pitting like nothing I'd encountered before. Hitting it with greaseless seemed to not do much as it left some black material that I could not get off. I resorted to hand sanding the blade for an hour to get the black stuff removed and then ran it through greaseless and rogues. Some pitting remains in that area, but it is really minor. It does now show some "hone ware" from the greaseless, but I'm happy with the results and it will hold place in my collection till I get a truly mint 6/8 one.
I just noticed that there is a small chip thing on the toe that looks like I need to take off about 1/32" at the end. I'll get to this eventually to square that off (probably before I sell it after I get a better one to replace it). I hate that DD's receive so much hype, but these do take an excellent edge.
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Next up is an oldie and probably the favorite razor in my collection. It is a pre 1830's Sheppard & Gough stubtail. I tried to keep a Satin finish by only going to emory and not to any rogues. Scales are original and had to be epoxied in several areas to hold the many cracks in them - I wasn't going to replace these scales unless absolutely necessary. I thought initially they were horn, but after sanding them they didn't seem like any horn I've worked with. Maybe Tortoise? But they don't have the characteristic speckles. Probably just really old horn. I did manage to retain the original flower shaped washers, though the hole in them was too big so I had to use small brass washers over them to ensure tight peening. Razor took a great edge, though I think it needs a slight tweaking as I haven't maxed it out yet. Somehow I got a multibevel going in one spot on the blade, but it shaves smooth and that's all I care about.
Next is a restore I'd been looking forward to for awhile. This was inspired by Legion's $10 restoration thread. I picked this razor up in a lot from Antique Hoosier for basically $9 shipped and when I received it I set it aside for testing out my first dremel work. I gave it a double thumbnotch, spanish point and worked spine. My critique of it is that the worked spine is too deep, but after making the first one I had to be consistent.
Scales are made from Black & Tan G10 with a White G10 lined Black G10 wedge. Unfortunately I tapered the wedge too much and had to really peen the wedge pin to get it snug. After this I didn't like the look and sanded the peens to try and smooth them out to look like one big brass peen. After putting the blade in I got a small gap to appear on one side of the wedge. I sanded the peens similar to the wedge to be consistent. If I get time in the future I'll remake the wedge and re-peen to look better.
All in all, I'm happy how it turned out and have decided to keep it in my rotation. I hope I did Seraphim proud
Before:
After:
Last up is a razor I did for forum member Slowhand. He was looking for a big wedge razor to compare to the full hollows he's been using. I just happened to have a 7/8 Joseph Rodgers & Sons Near Wedge lying around
Scales are multi-colored blond horn with a brass lined black horn wedge. Ignore the black smudge on the toe as that is just buffing compound I forgot to wipe off before snapping some photos.
Hope everyone enjoys!
First up is a 15/16 Rich Abr Herder #14 half hollow. I bought this blade over 6 months ago for the costly sum of $24 shipped. I had a very small amount of red acrylic backed Abalone shell remaining and had to use a small blade (length wise) to even squeeze some scales out of it. I had to use the entire width of my shell blank to even make scales for this and they are still shorter than my preference. Wedge is black G10.
I'm really intrigued on this as I've read that the Filly and Palmera #14 blanks all came from one place, and I wonder if this is from the same blanks. I'll say this - I honed this up to a La Veinette coticule edge and it is most definitely one of the best edges I've encountered. It rivals my Palmera 14 easily and is now a top 5 shaver in my collection. I will never part with this one.
Next up is a 15/16 Erik Anton Berg full hollow. You don't see swedes this large too often and when I saw it I had to buy it. Blade had some deep scratches and some pitting so I had to start at 80 greaseless and even then there are traces remaining. Scales are black acrylic backed real Abalone Shell. Wedge is a Royal Blue G10 lined Forest Green G10 spacer.
Next up is a 6/8 DD Satinedge that I cleaned up. I'll give the seller credit for making the pictures of this one look much better than it was when it showed up in person. The whole blade was black when I received it. On the front side on the top of the spine near the toe was some nasty pitting like nothing I'd encountered before. Hitting it with greaseless seemed to not do much as it left some black material that I could not get off. I resorted to hand sanding the blade for an hour to get the black stuff removed and then ran it through greaseless and rogues. Some pitting remains in that area, but it is really minor. It does now show some "hone ware" from the greaseless, but I'm happy with the results and it will hold place in my collection till I get a truly mint 6/8 one.
I just noticed that there is a small chip thing on the toe that looks like I need to take off about 1/32" at the end. I'll get to this eventually to square that off (probably before I sell it after I get a better one to replace it). I hate that DD's receive so much hype, but these do take an excellent edge.
Before:
After:
Next up is an oldie and probably the favorite razor in my collection. It is a pre 1830's Sheppard & Gough stubtail. I tried to keep a Satin finish by only going to emory and not to any rogues. Scales are original and had to be epoxied in several areas to hold the many cracks in them - I wasn't going to replace these scales unless absolutely necessary. I thought initially they were horn, but after sanding them they didn't seem like any horn I've worked with. Maybe Tortoise? But they don't have the characteristic speckles. Probably just really old horn. I did manage to retain the original flower shaped washers, though the hole in them was too big so I had to use small brass washers over them to ensure tight peening. Razor took a great edge, though I think it needs a slight tweaking as I haven't maxed it out yet. Somehow I got a multibevel going in one spot on the blade, but it shaves smooth and that's all I care about.
Next is a restore I'd been looking forward to for awhile. This was inspired by Legion's $10 restoration thread. I picked this razor up in a lot from Antique Hoosier for basically $9 shipped and when I received it I set it aside for testing out my first dremel work. I gave it a double thumbnotch, spanish point and worked spine. My critique of it is that the worked spine is too deep, but after making the first one I had to be consistent.
Scales are made from Black & Tan G10 with a White G10 lined Black G10 wedge. Unfortunately I tapered the wedge too much and had to really peen the wedge pin to get it snug. After this I didn't like the look and sanded the peens to try and smooth them out to look like one big brass peen. After putting the blade in I got a small gap to appear on one side of the wedge. I sanded the peens similar to the wedge to be consistent. If I get time in the future I'll remake the wedge and re-peen to look better.
All in all, I'm happy how it turned out and have decided to keep it in my rotation. I hope I did Seraphim proud
Before:
After:
Last up is a razor I did for forum member Slowhand. He was looking for a big wedge razor to compare to the full hollows he's been using. I just happened to have a 7/8 Joseph Rodgers & Sons Near Wedge lying around
Scales are multi-colored blond horn with a brass lined black horn wedge. Ignore the black smudge on the toe as that is just buffing compound I forgot to wipe off before snapping some photos.
Hope everyone enjoys!
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