Thread: Hargreaves, Smith & Co. "Imperial" restoration

Knock um down, Tuzi.

Good work! You always seem to get the nice, even bevels on these old wedges.
That bronze will stand-out after a while, giving a nice look!

Thanks for the kind words, gents - it means a lot to me. Yeah, the bevel turned out pretty even after all. If you look at the before pics you'll see some wonky hone wear near the spine. So, I was able to work that out and then pay attention with the hones so as not to repeat it.

With the weird spine like this one has there is always a risk that the bevel will look different (wider, I think) where the spine is cut away. I made sure to hone at at least a 45 degree angle to the hone at all times here, doing a "rolling x" stroke. I used two layers of tape.

As for not making mistakes, har! I make them just like anybody. On this one I pinned the whole thing together and then realized that I forgot to clean up the edges of the domes first. They were a little rough and sharp along the edge (from being stamped/cut?). So, not wanting to unpin I tried to sand them in place with 2000 grit and a popsicle stick. This of course marked up my scales. In the end I had to unpin, clean up the scales, clean up the edges on 4 new domes, and do it right. Wasted a little bronze in the process.

Again (and as usual) I did this restoration virtually all by hand. I did use a dremel to rough sand the scales to shape (then by hand after that), and then I used the dremel on the blade for a minute or two at the end with a wool wheel and 0.5 micron diamond lapping paste to shine out any (if any) haze from the 4000 grit wet/dry on the spine and tang. For me, I have more control doing it by hand though it's not as fast. I don't even own a buffer, but then I've not yet felt the need for one.

Tuzi, you are the master of the matte finish on blade faces! Very, very nice work Sir. This makes my eyes happy

As usual Tuzi, an amazing job restoring. And you did a real bang em up job on the blade, it looks great

Great job - looks top !

Stunning work indeed, as mentioned by several members already, the finish on the blade is amazing, great work on the scales.