"Almost Custom" 13/16 in Black Micarta & Aluminum

I had this old Sheffield wedge (at least I'm pretty sure it was a sheffield wedge) that had some really bad pitting, and was kinda just "blah"... it was basically trashed. The lines on it were all worn out, the stamp was nearly completely gone, there was uneven hone wear, and it was just in overall poor condition. Even the scales were snapped in pieces on the wedge end. Had I rescaled it in some nice scales, I wasn't feeling like it would have been a really nice razor that would sell well. Heres a pic:

http://www.straightrazoredge.com/200...6%20-%2016.JPG

The other side was the same story.

I decided that this razor just wasn't going to make me happy unless I did some drastic stuff to it. Sooooo..... hows this

http://www.straightrazoredge.com/200...16%20-%203.JPG

http://www.straightrazoredge.com/200...16%20-%205.JPG

http://www.straightrazoredge.com/200...16%20-%207.JPG

http://www.straightrazoredge.com/200...6%20-%2012.JPG


I am really looking forward to honing this one and shaving with it before I sell it.... if I even do ;)

BTW -- YES, IT IS THE SAME RAZOR. I will follow this post up with a step by step process for those interested in reading it. Gonna play with my son for a bit first ;)

That is breathtaking. Really impressive work. Especially seeing the before and after.

Awesome work on this one!!

I love the new look.

Keep up the great restores. :tu

Very nice! I would love to see a "step by step." :)

Brad,
As an aside from the beautiful "restoration" work on that blade, the cuts and texture added to the tang make me think this razor would just be an absolute joy to hold and shave with. Wonderful work.

First, I traced an outline of the blade on a piece of paper, and then within its bounds, I drew a design of how I wanted the blade to be.

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/142.JPG

Then, I took my pad of paper to my little garage workshop. I used it as a guide, slowly removing little bits of metal. The majority of the metal that I removed was (obviously) on the toe of the blade. I did, however, remove a huge amount from the tang. Notice how on the original blade, the tang has a bit of a "hump" ? I removed it completely. the entire spine had metal removed. I did most of the spine on a belt sander, I re-ground the blade using an 8" 120grit wheel. the entire tang was sanded down on the belt sander as well, revealing new, flat surfaces. I used a dremel with a fairly large grinding attachment to create a rough thumb notch as well. I tweaked my design while I was working on it as well -- I decided the original was a bit much, so, instead of the insane-spanish point I went with a more rounded. Sorry I don't have pics in between, but, after about 2 hours, I had this:

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/143.JPG

After a bit more dremeling to make the thumb notch bigger, and some more work on the belt sander, I got to this point:

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/144.JPG

For the spine... I decided to start easy -- just used a small dremel grinding attachment. I got out my ruler and marked where I wanted each of my "dips":

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/146.JPG

I knew I had to chop into the metal @ the dotted line, and I would grind until I hit the black lines on each side.

Sooo.. I was getting close!

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/147.JPG

(continued in next reply)

I spent a few minutes checking out my creation, since it was my first time attempting spine work

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/148.JPG

After that, I took her to the greaseless. this was off of 80grit.

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/149.JPG

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/150.JPG

you'll see that I had a bit of pitting still. Believe it or not, even in my final product you can still see about 2 pits in the metal ;) Thats OK -- reminds me of its origin!

After running it through the rest of my greaseless compounds, I was done!

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/153.JPG


Sooo.. I had about 4 hours into my little project, and the blade was done... ;)

next was the scales...

(continued in next reply)

Scales... oh my. I wanted something crazy but simple, I talked to Slart a bit for advice ;)

I did my typical "draw it on paper" approach, and came up with a shape. I also decided to try some liners. After all, I was destroying a vintage razor, I mine as well pay my respects to Seraphim :)

So, after some work, I had this:

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/160.JPG

I remembered a while back Glen saying that gorilla glue was the best to use for bonding liners.

So, I used it! It worked great!

I clamped each one in 4 spots. it says on the package the more clamping the better.

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/163.JPG

So, I cleaned them up a bit, and got to this point:

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/164.JPG

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/165.JPG

Clearly the next logical step on these almost done scales.....was to mess them up again ;)

(continued on next reply)

/DROOL!!!!

I went out to my drill press and got me a big'ole bit.

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/166.JPG

It was scary as hell.

What really sucked was, during the process of drilling these holes, somehow my gorilla glue bond got messed up on one of them. I had to re-bond it, and I didn't take pictures of that ;( cost me a few hours.

Finally, I did a mockup of my newly drilled scales:

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/170.JPG


I liked it but somethings was missing. so, I took it back outside and found a sharpie, and just started drawing curves on the scales.

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/172.JPG

So, all I had to do was make the spacer!

This was what I wanted the shape to be like. It was not easy in any way to match it up.

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/171.JPG

Sooo.. I chose black acrylic, and I went ahead and worked on it for like 30 minutes! most of the time spacers dont take that long for me. :O

Anyway, after the spacer was done, I pinned up the wedge end, and took the scales to the buffer for a good buffin' ;)

I was finally ready to pin the blade in.

I wanted this razor to be nice and snug..but the pine hole on the tang was that of a 1800's sheffield wedge still. it was huge!

Here is my solution:

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/175.JPG

I did a brass tube overtop of the 1/16" nickel silver rod. the blade fit snug ;)

(continued on next reply)