Thread: My TX meet build

Well after a first dismal failure I went back to the forge and banged out another. I got the blade ht’d and tempered and finished the hollows at the meet then finished up the sanding and scales at my place.

The tang and spine is hand sanded to 600 then lightly buffed, I left the hollows at 400 and then lightly buffed those. Scales are black horn with a matching wedge. I made a scratch stock for creating the round overs for the scales then wet sanded them out to 3000 then buffed them all the way up to a white compound. I used thrust washers from some long ago restore and stainless washer and stainless pin, a first for me, and a last as pinning took me about 20 minutes. The stainless even after annealing requires a lot of force to get to tighten up. I’ll use nickel silver next time.

Bevel set was a nightmare. The steel on this W2 razor makes American vintage razors feel like a pre tariff Sheffield, on the hones. I was bit scared the edge would chip out as I have never honed a blade so hard before.

Well the moment of truth was last night, the maiden voyage. I was a bit worried I may have ended up with a wind chime or at the very least having to do another tempering cycle to get the edge from chipping out. Under the loupe all looked well, but you never know. Well on the first stroke of the first pass I knew everything had fallen into place. The blade I had been afraid was going to be to heavy for my liking was perfect, the scales in the shaving position are perfect for my hand whilst shaving. The point didn’t lop an ear off, and the edge oh the sweet smooth sharp edge. I think the shave was the best I’ve ever had. The whole process from the beard mapping to the lather are a direct result from my involvement in this forum and the men here, who, so freely give of their experience.













And a huge thanks to Charlie and Victor for answering all my 10,000 questions.