Italian? 6/8 Near Wedge

This is a fully restored 6/8 heavy Near Wedge blade. Originally the tang read "G-----HL Garantie" and there was a small etching on the blade that said "Diamante" that was mostly lost in the restoration process (stupid not very deep etching...). Based on the Garantie and Diamante I think this could be an Italian wedge? Definitely not sheffield. If it is Italian it is pretty rare. There is a small triangle on the backside of the tang - maybe the makers marks?

Blade was taken to greaseless and rogues on the buffer to a high mirror finish. Etching on Blade and some on tang was lost due to not very deep stamps. There are very small areas of pitting that were left.

Blade is shoulderless and has a thumb notch with jimps on the bottom.

Scales are custom green sparkling acrylic with a stainless steel lined black acrylic spacer and nickel and SS washers for peens. Shape compliments the blade well.

Honed it up to an escher finish and the blade mows through whiskers. Sucker is silent too and provided very little feedback while honing and stropping, but definitely takes a sweet edge.

Before:
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/SAM_1890.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/SAM_1891.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/SAM_1892.jpg

After:
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/SAM_1980.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/SAM_1983.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/SAM_1988.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/SAM_1994.jpg


Razor centers perfectly despite this last photo - photo taken from a bad angle

Definitely not Italian... working on it, but my guess until I find the maker is that it is Swedish or French.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BKratchmer

Definitely not Italian... working on it, but my guess until I find the maker is that it is Swedish or French.

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Thanks! I figured it was not sheffield or solingen and just guessed italian. French or swedish would probably make more sense though as I get that there are very few italian blades around.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harvitz81

Thanks! I figured it was not sheffield or solingen and just guessed italian. French or swedish would probably make more sense though as I get that there are very few italian blades around.

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Yep. I'm going through lists of makers trying to figure it out. One would think that triangle on the back would be a giveaway, but so far... unless Wapi made an ultra-premium model, it isn't narrowing it down at all.

Nice save! Looks good! :tu