The Sweeney Todd challenge

[totorlekiller]

So I dug up the Sweeney Todd I had bought last year and got working on it.
Some obvious observation: that thing was not designed to be honed. The geometry of the blade is weird and more importantly the spine is about 1/2 the width it should be. So just putting a few layers of tape won't cut it.
I ended up making a frameback around the blade using skewers and electric tape.
That was not stable and getting to a bevel was awful. But a bevel I got. Well, kind of: I could get a bevel on the top 2/3 of the blade. The geometry near the heel did not cooperate.
my contraption not being stable enough, I did not bother to go beyond the King 6K and moved to crOx on a strop for finishing.
The result is a weak HHT 1, pushing on 2.
I might attempt a shave test tomorrow morning.

I do not have any expectation of the shave being any good, but surprisingly the metal did not seem that bad.
With a proper framing using a cut metal tubing for example, better results could be expected.

Now stropping that thing was not easy either. That blade makes a Filarmonica feel small.

 

[imatabor]

Good luck with the shave. Have 911 on speed dial just in case

 

[Haggises]

Count ears, nose and head before the shave. Check numbers after.
Good luck!

 

[imatabor]

Is the edge thicker towards the heal? Looks like it is wedge shaped to act like a stabilizer. (I'm on a tablet so maybe I'm seeing it wrong)

 

[totorlekiller]

Is the edge thicker towards the heal? Looks like it is wedge shaped to act like a stabilizer. (I'm on a tablet so maybe I'm seeing it wrong)

The spine gets thicker near the heel, so honing that part could work. What prevented me to properly set the bevel there was that the contraption I created to maintain the angle was too loose in that area.

 

[totorlekiller]

So in a stunt that might make Slash McCoy proud, I did shave with the Sweeney Todd this morning.
I was a bit hesitant at first and try to get out of it taking being late for work as an excuse, but I went ahead anyway.
First pass WTG went OK. I had a backup razor ready to finish with ATG just in case, but I kept going with the Sweeney Todd.
Even a partial 3rd pass at the difficult area.
It went actually surprising well.
The shave was not good, but about what I would expect from a razor only honed down to 6000 grit (2 microns). The crOx did not do anything here as stropping on my crOx strop was very unpractical (too short, too narrow and the tang of the razor is too short for a precise grip).

Now, it seems that had I had the patience to push the grits up to 16K, the shave might be decent.
Next projects might be to extend the tang a bit, which would also remove part of that hard to hone area and more importantly to get a proper way of holding the blade at the proper angle during the honing process. I'll look for some plumbing metal tubing this weekend.

 

[Dusty1]

I have one of those that is not shave ready. You should take a pic of your honing jig you make, I would like to see it

 

[totorlekiller]

I have one of those that is not shave ready. You should take a pic of your honing jig you make, I would like to see it

What I did is take a wood BBQ skewer, broke it is half and taped each half along the top to the spine on each side. then covered with an extra layer of tape to keep in place.