Hawcroft & Pearson 4/8th Smiling Wedge restore/rescale/repin/re…

Hawcroft & Pearson 4/8th Smiling Wedge

This is one of the first eBay Junker I ever bought for a less than it cost to ship.
Wanted a small wedge for my goatee… but as usual with ebay purchases, it’s a crapshoot. The blade was so rusty from cell rot I almost threw her in the trash… that was a many moons ago.
Last week I decided to make good on the “loss” and give her a makeover.

OK so she’s no fancy monstrous meat chopper … but I don’t often see 4/8th wedgies… so maybe she is special… a supped up “Corolla”?.

4 days of hard hand sanding (on and off) and another couple polishing and there is still some tiny pits but you’d hardly notice.
The scales were another 3 days (when I wasn’t working on the blade).
The pin is a 5/64 brass rod because the blade’s pivot hole was rusted much lager than 1/16 (had to make the rivet washer and bearing holes larger too).
Scales were cut from 3/16 thick clear Lexan. It was all I had from another unrelated project so I had to do a lot of sanding to “thin” the scales. The scales are also rounded. The wedge is translucent gray Plexiglas (wedge shaped to spread the scales) and CA glued.

The lighting makes the scales look “milky” but it is transparent… almost glasslike… I dub these… “Teardrop Scales”.

Like most wedgies she did spend some time on the hone but the shave was excellent, left my face feeling 20 years younger…lolollol.

The first pic is both sides of the blade as removed from the rotting scales.
The second is the completed scales with the polished blade.
The rest are glamour shots attached for your entertainment.

Man, that blade is awesome! I never thought I'd like a 4/8 that much!

Nice! So with your time, a $6 razor turnes into a $150 razor. Good deal.

Nice to see a set of traditional shaped scales. What a beauty! Glad you didn't throw her out.:y

Oh, what a razor!
Oh, you make me dream now......:tu...mm..need one

Many thanks gentlemen, I am really appreciate the encouraging words.

I wanted to build these scales as close to the originals as possible, but it seems things turned out better. I was concerned that the insides if the scale would get scratched by the blade so I tapered the wedge to spread the scales just enough so that, except for the tip of the toe, no other part of the blade touches the scales at any time, the wedge is also thick enough that the blade rides at just the right height.
The bearings (washers) at the pivot also keep the scale away from the blade, so here is almost no chance of the inside scales getting scratched.

Incidentally… it’s a good idea to polish bearings before pinning a razor, it makes closer mating surfaces and helps make the joint waterproof.

I wanted to rescale the blade with black material, but it seems Lexan is only available in clear.
Acrylic OTOH can be had in many different colors but I find it tricky to work with… it is brittle, and random stress cracks appear on or near the surface while machining, and these cracks are only noticeable just before final polishing (really frustrating). Maybe I need to change my machining technique.
Lexan is much more flexible but not too soft for scales. You could hammer Lexan (like accidentally hitting the scale while pinning) without damaging it… anyone knows a source for colored Lexan?

I have been experimenting with this scale material for some time now, dipping it hot water to see if it would lose transparency and it seems to be holding up quite well.
Once I dipped it in acetone and got a cool “cracked ice” effect on the surface, however it is hard to repeat and most of the time end up looking like I just sanded it with 1K grit paper… looks cool too but not quite what I want… these and other experiments continue.

Holy crap! Awesome job!

Wow every part of that razor looks great. I like its looks.


Charlie

Outstanding job! I'm really starting to like those clear scales.....might have to look into some for one of mine now! :tu

Very nice job all around!

There is nothing like seeing a once rusted blade shine so nicely. Excelent work.

Wow! that's awesome!

I love smiling blades. The scales are awesome in the true sense of the word as is the mirror polish. Great job !

that came out sweeeeet! what kind of compound did you use to polish the blade?

Sweet!

And VERY glad to see new life given to such and old blade (not really familiar with Hawcoft & Pearson but per Goins' 2nd edt., c 1837-1844) - and make it look so gorgeous with a mirror shine.

IMHO it's nice to have very slight traces of pitting left just to give folks a hint at the character and history behind it.

Oh, my thread had been Lazarus-ed. Thanks guys, for bringing back the memories... it was indeed a fun restore.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nessmuck

that came out sweeeeet! what kind of compound did you use to polish the blade?

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I use Sinichrome polish, it's probably the same type/class as MAAS compound.
I use it as the final polish on all restores.