Thread: Shumate Ben Hur - Started pretty rough

This Shumate started out in pretty sad shape. With little to lose, I took it apart and started sanding. To avoid thinning the blade too much I chose to not take out all the pitting. I cleaned up the scales and repinned it.

The "before" and "after" are obvious.

Definitely not as fine as The Baron's (beautiful work!!), but it should turn into a shaver.

wow, I think if I saw a blade that looks like your blade in picture 3 there, I don't know that I would have made an attempt at it. Way to stick with it, how long did that take?

You did what you had to do and you did it very well. You have a very decent shaver and sometimes we need to live with remaining blemishes on our razors.

Wow ! That was pretty neglected. You did well.
Looks like you cleaned the edge up pretty nicely too.

Originally Posted by Maximilian

and sometimes we need to live with remaining blemishes on our razors.

I personally prefer variety and wabisabi most times. I see Maximilians work where the blade looks like glass and I love it. I see blades with that brushed satin look and I love it. At the same time I see a blade that is cleaned up with some battle scars left on it and it has that feel (not to be a nerd here) like an X-Wing fighter with blaster marks on it, and I love it.

there's no rhyme and reason for why all finishes can still look good, but I don't think blemishes are always something we should feel we need to "live" with. Although sometimes we need to live with the remaining blemishes .

This blade has that frosted glass look with the blemishes, and I think I like it.

I probably have about 4 hours in it. I used the "scotchbrite" like abrasive wheels on my Dremel. They work great to take off a little metal at a time. Then 600, 1200, 1500 and 2000 paper, followed by Flitz on a felt wheel.

The edge had some rot so I breadknifed it before I did anything else. That exposed good steel and made it dull enough to work on with no worries about cutting myself or damaged a sharp edge.

It is sharpening up (I can restore a whole lot better than I can hone , but I do have about 10 ebay specials - none over $15 - that I have gotten shaving sharp.) I am thoroughly enjoying the craft of all of this. Shaving with a straight is a great fringe benefit!