Thread: Joseph Elliot 'For Barbers Use'

A 7/8+ Joseph Elliot For Barbers Use near wedge. The challenge to restoring this blade was correcting the huge divot someone had ground into the spine on the show face side back towards the tang. It all worked out well in the end with a nice glazed finish. The original broken scales were replaced with some beautiful fiddleback honey horn. Brass collars and a lead wedge completed the restoration. I have included a picture from the owner where the fiddleback figure in the horn is easier to see. The in work pictures show the blade faces off the 400 grit belt and the bevel set.

Nice work Karl. Wonder why someone would have done that to the spine.

Originally Posted by Gasman

Nice work Karl. Wonder why someone would have done that to the spine.

Not sure. The corrosion on the blade would not have warranted that much metal removal. There was a similar but smaller dished out area on the back face at the toe. I wonder is someone was trying to cut in the decorative work you see on some of the fancier near wedges.

Boom! Man, that is a lovely and thoughtful restore that I think respects the history of that blade. Very nice work.

I've seen a lot of the large old wedgey grinds with that kind of spine wear - never quite figured it out myself and always thought it was due to some slightly out of whack blade geometry, and/or years of poor honing on unlapped stones. But that is pure conjecture.

As for the idea that it might be someone trying to do decorative work, I am a celebrated moron when it comes to this stuff (a gormless twitt in fact) and even I wouldn't do that kind of thing to a spine, so I'm not sure I'm with you there. But again, I am often wrong when it comes to this stuff...

Anyway, that is, as I said, a lovely restore of a wonderful blade.

James.

I have two of those blades. They came as a pair. Mine do not look quite that good. You do beautiful work. Those blades are not easy to find, I’m sure the owner is over the moon with this one. Nice scales too. Horn is often extremely beautiful, it amazes me that at one point all that nice horn was all dyed black. Those are a great example of what horn can be.

By narrowing the spine how much did the geometry of the edge change?

Yea it was just a thought. Who knows why it was done but it was held against a wheel and dished out. The grind lines running fore and aft.

Beautiful piece and, as usual, very nice work. Looked to me like someone decided to do a regrind or, as you said, add some scalloping into the spine then figured out it was not as easy in reality as it was in concept. Sucks when ambition and ability don't meet, especially on a beautiful piece like that. Nice save Karl!

Originally Posted by 32t

By narrowing the spine how much did the geometry of the edge change?

I'm not sure about the geometry. I can tell you it still has a near wedge appearance and a thin and even bevel. Look at the toe on picture. The shave is awesome.

Outstanding work Karlej! You did work miracles on that blade!