I bought some French razors just before Christmas and, in a lot of 4, one was damaged but I knew about it before buying.
For the price and condition of the others I was ok with that.
I thought one thing I don't have is a shorty so I got to work on the damaged one.
It's a Kabrand 415 Pour Barbedure, the blade had a chunk out of it and, on the reverse, the scale was trashed.
I folded a piece of paper over the spine down to the edge, both sides, and trimmed it at the toe to give me a template of the current toe shape (round but more on that later)
It'sHammer Dremel time with a diamond coated disc.
1. 15 minutes later I had removed 1/2 an inch or 1.5 cm from the 3 inch (7.5cm) blade.
2. The cut was very satisfying and clean.
3. The paper from earlier was used to mark what needed to be trimmed.
I also shortened the scales while I was at it.
1. A quick sanding of the scales got them back in shape but they're quite yellow so I went at them with 0000 steel wool and then metal polish and they came up a lovely cream or off white. the Kabrand inlay also shined up like a new button.
2. Scales cleaned up nicely and I didn't have to unpin the wedge end to get them spotless inside. Marked where the new pivot pin will be. Back to the toe shape of the blade, I'm having second thoughts of restoring the original round toe as I kinda like the current sweep. I'm really in two minds about this.
3. Drilled new holes on a Dremel work station/Drill press which I don't fully trust to drill straight but it went well with perfect alignment.
Tomorrow I'll give the blade a Dialux Orange, Grey and then Green buff but I'm not going to go overboard on this as the blade itself has a lot of honewear and the project is more of a trial run for a much bigger and far more important project to come.
After its had its buff I'll peen and hone so stay tuned for part 2.
For the price and condition of the others I was ok with that.
I thought one thing I don't have is a shorty so I got to work on the damaged one.
It's a Kabrand 415 Pour Barbedure, the blade had a chunk out of it and, on the reverse, the scale was trashed.
I folded a piece of paper over the spine down to the edge, both sides, and trimmed it at the toe to give me a template of the current toe shape (round but more on that later)
It's
1. 15 minutes later I had removed 1/2 an inch or 1.5 cm from the 3 inch (7.5cm) blade.
2. The cut was very satisfying and clean.
3. The paper from earlier was used to mark what needed to be trimmed.
I also shortened the scales while I was at it.
1. A quick sanding of the scales got them back in shape but they're quite yellow so I went at them with 0000 steel wool and then metal polish and they came up a lovely cream or off white. the Kabrand inlay also shined up like a new button.
2. Scales cleaned up nicely and I didn't have to unpin the wedge end to get them spotless inside. Marked where the new pivot pin will be. Back to the toe shape of the blade, I'm having second thoughts of restoring the original round toe as I kinda like the current sweep. I'm really in two minds about this.
3. Drilled new holes on a Dremel work station/Drill press which I don't fully trust to drill straight but it went well with perfect alignment.
Tomorrow I'll give the blade a Dialux Orange, Grey and then Green buff but I'm not going to go overboard on this as the blade itself has a lot of honewear and the project is more of a trial run for a much bigger and far more important project to come.
After its had its buff I'll peen and hone so stay tuned for part 2.