Thread: My second blade: brightnail

Today I spent another 2 hours honing

The blade now passes the TNT along the entire edge. I could have gotten finished much sooner if I had resisted using pressure and going back and forth on my diamond plate, because then there wouldn't have been a wire that took our a tiny piece of the edge when breaking off

But the good news is that we are getting close. In a couple of days (when I have 3 days worth of stubble) I'll finish the honing and finally give it a testshave.

Awesome Bruno!!

Keep up the great work!!

Lynn

Really nice, Bruno. I like your sense of style.

Ok, I finally have it shaveready. It took me 3 more 1 hour sessions to set the bevel, and then 2 honing sessions to get it shaveready. It is very hard and tough.

To be fair, the major reason it took so long was that the blade geometry caused the bevel to be fairly wide; something I had failed to anticipate when making the blade. And I had a flare of tendonitis in my elbow which put me off honing for a couple of weeks.

But now it is shaveready.

Great to hear, I bet it will shave as smooth as a Cadillac Eldorado going down the highway.

really nice looking razor

Absolute stunner of a blade !


oh and yes i like the scales too

ian

Originally Posted by Bruno

the name ‘brightnail’ popped into my head.

You won’t recognize it if you haven’t read Tad Williams’s fantasy novel: Memory, thorn, and sorrow

Bruno gave this razor to me for just dollars on the Euro awhile back, and I have only shaved with it a few times since. Bill the giveaway dude helped me refine the edge a little (if I remember right) but the resistance of the steel to be abraded and the wickedness of the spike point kept the razor from being used more than it should have been. So I guess Brightnail turned out to be a prophetic name as pertaining to Tad Williams (any relation to Ted?). My goal is to make the thorn and sorrow just a memory I believe it is time to finally tame this beast.



So this morning I ran the razor through an extensive abrasive stropping regimen and felt that the edge had possibly improved again. Which is good. In fact, ever since I have had the razor, the edge has never degraded through use as far as I can tell. Anyway, the wild brightnail was not as wild as last time. She drew no blood, in her mercy. I spent a few extra minutes exercising the strengths of the spike, and overall am really pleased. My only complaint was that she was not as smooth as I wanted her to be. And part of that is still me getting used to her. The edge does still need a little more though so I guess I will keep playing with that.

My plan is to start a temporarily monogamous relationship with her until she is well-disciplined, so I may or may not update this thread regularly in the near future, depending on mostly trivial factors I do not wish to elaborate on and could as well have not even mentioned just now. (One of the strange parts about forum post communications for me is that they are a strange blend of information-conveyance with an uncertainty I liken to participating in a Turing test where one is not really sure who or what the audience is... anyway, back to the story)

Actually no the story is over. Stay tuned, or don't!

PS With Bruno's permission, the maiden name Brightnail will be overshadowed in the future by a new name which she will earn through her hard work and dedication to plowing the fields of my face smooth and shiny. That name has yet to be determined

I really love the lines defining that blade. It is the best work I've done so far, and will be hard to surpass.
To me, she will always be brightnail because that is how I made her.
I can't stop you from calling her by a different name though.

Originally Posted by Bruno

I really love the lines defining that blade

So do I. It is the spiketastic point and how it works with the rest of the blade that drew me to it. I love that the blade is wide, has a stiff grind, yet is very lightweight and maneuverable due to the shorter cutting edge and thin blade profile. The deep thumbnotch also works well practically.

If another name presents itself, I'll only whisper it in private and nobody else has to know