Thread: Wade & Butchered...

Well I love the French point & thumbnotch but the coarser spine jimping doesn't seem to flow into the tang jimping. A bit of an abrupt transition if you get my drift but no accounting for taste eh.
I love the hone wear, shows its not a wall hanger

I think it looks good. But if it were mine I think I would prefer longer, sleaker curves. Not bumps. I prefer curves.

I like it. As far as just eyeballing it, you did dang good. It looks like it came from the factory that way.

I'm in two minds about this. I like 'notches, and like spine decoration, but I have a soft spot for big old wedges with a nice patina. Once you whack some scales on that beast I might be able to decide whether I like it or not.

Originally Posted by Seraphim

Next up, I'll take a nice Helje Mk31 and remove the thumbnotch from it!

I like it,think it looks great.Best Regards Gary

Did you taper the spine into that the diamond profile as well ? That's pretty neat.

Seraphim a regular straight razor shaving Duchamp, art for arts sake, very good indeed! I paint regularly in acrylics and do some sculpting.

That being said, I see the same pattern in all your razors, scallops (large and uniformed in shape) and the monkey tailed or similar scalloping of the tang.

At first it seemed impressive but now its very repetitive, and now repetitive on a very good piece of steel not some 10 dollar DA.

My opinion is: boring! I say push the envelope man, start doing some serious Bill Elliot style spine work with that dremel, flowers, gargoyles, symbols, and more, things we haven't seen. Love to see some serious inlay work.

My advice take a look at ornate wood carvings and glen (oops glean,sorry Glen)some ideas, and turn the steel into wood! This is what I would be doing if I was decent with a dremel, currently I can only buff, and that's barely. So this is truly critic as artist here, however I think this is what major companies would be or should be doing.

Everyone seems to customize scales, I say customize the steel, give it complex images and symbols...

cheers that's my humble 2 cents.

Cheers
D

Originally Posted by Sirshavesalot

Seraphim a regular straight razor shaving Duchamp, art for arts sake, very good indeed! I paint regularly in acrylics and do some sculpting.

That being said, I see the same pattern in all your razors, scallops (large and uniformed in shape) and the monkey tailed or similar scalloping of the tang.

At first it seemed impressive but now its very repetitive, and now repetitive on a very good piece of steel not some 10 dollar DA.

My opinion is: boring! I say push the envelope man, start doing some serious Bill Elliot style spine work with that dremel, flowers, gargoyles, symbols, and more, things we haven't seen. Love to see some serious inlay work.

My advice take a look at ornate wood carvings and glen (oops glean,sorry Glen)some ideas, and turn the steel into wood! This is what I would be doing if I was decent with a dremel, currently I can only buff, and that's barely. So this is truly critic as artist here, however I think this is what major companies would be or should be doing.

Everyone seems to customize scales, I say customize the steel, give it complex images and symbols...

cheers that's my humble 2 cents.

Cheers
D

That is what I would truly like to do. And I appreciate your trying to spur me on to new forms.

However I am limited by my resources. I imagine you mean Bill Ellis, not Bill Elliot? He does all of his spine work before a razor is heat treated, which allows him to use a file, and get crazy on stuff, as the metal is still soft, not Rockwell 58-62! He has a fantastic tutotorial over on B&B that illustrates how he does his filework. Tremendous stuff!

I don't have the facilities/skill to heat treat razors, so I use already made razors

You say you've buffed with a dremel, so you know how hard razor steel really is. Having to work on a tempered steel razor, that means I must use a grinder, as nothing else will make even a dent in it, a file simple slides off it (go ahead and try it yourself! It's rather impresive how hard the steel is!) and that limits what forms and shapes I can create. And the dremel is not the most accurate of tools either, so I can't get too intricate.

So, part of the "repetitive" nature of my work is due to the limitations of the tools I have to work with, and some of it is simply my aesthetic, what I like a razor to look like. I dig thumbnotches (in case you guys hadn't noticed...), so just about every razor gets a 'notch and some other tang work to blend it in. I like worked backs, so I do what I can to spruce up the spine (again, that is largely limited by the need for a round rotating grinder). If I were able to make my own blades from scratch, they would still end up looking very much like what my current stuff looks like, perhaps with a bit more of a humpback and smile on them though...

If you look at most custom makers they also tend to do repetitive work: many Ellis razors have the swooping semi-thumbnotched tang and similar outlines (but with unbelievable etching & filework!). Williams razors have a somewhat organic look(not sure how to put it, they sort of look like they come from nature?) with flowing monkey tails. Livis look like Livis. A Chandler razor is also easily recognized. Etc, etc. It would seem that is just the way they like their razors to look. A Monet is not a Picasso, as the artists have a different form of expression.

So, in regards to this W&B: I truly have welcomed all the critique of it, both pro and con. I can especially appreciate the sentiment that a W&B is an Institution, a venerable and noble brand. However, I myself had not used this razor in 3-4 months as I was completely bored by it (even though the shaves have always been fantastic). So bored by it, as I said, that I was about to sell it.

There are still hundreds and hundreds of "traditional" W&B Celebrated Fine India Steel razors out there, one just the same as another (talk about repetitive, these things were mass produced!). But now, instead of just another one of them, I now have a modified W&B that is like no other. Which is just how I like it!

as far as jimps, spine work etc. on hard and soft steel. yours always looks consistent, which considering what you're working with is even more impressive. I wonder what sort of fixtures could be created to help guys get these things more uniform. I was thinking about it last night, there are some blades I see on here that have jimps added that are very square and clunky, but wouldn't be so bad if regular. yet I see varying depths, odd spacing. I think fixtures could be made to solve that, EXCEPT, when it is on a curved surface, with that I just couldn't picture in my head how it would be done. I'm sure it is possible, I just don't know how. my friend passed away last summer, I would have enjoyed talking to him about it. he was a tool and die maker for a while. he made some great fixutres for gunsmithing. I have his bolt jeweling device in my shop at home. clever.

I think your only option now is to get some blade blanks pre-heat treat and go nuts.

Red