The Freddy Krueger razor

People that know me know that I like a challenge. Sometimes to the point of a ridiculous, foolish and unnecessarily difficult challenge.

The fact is, if something is easy I generally get bored pretty quickly. This was the reason I got into straight razor shaving in the first place. I got bored with getting BBS every time using a safety razor. Wet shaving wasn't interesting to me any more. So I picked up a straight and, guess what!? It was bloody difficult, and therefore fun again!

So, for my next trick...

I found this razor in the wild (antique store) and thought it would be worth owning. It is a W+B wedge with a 5/8 blade and a very thick grind. I date it around 1850ish, though I could be wrong about that. It was more rust than razor, but I gave it a light sand to see what I was working with and really liked the way the pitting looked. Almost like textured Damascus steel

The blade imeadiatly became known as Freddy Krueger because of all the scaring, and I decided to make the scales in red and green, to match Freddy's sweater.

I just finished honing him, and what an ordeal! I don't know what kind of steel was used in the construction of that blade, but I suspect it is extra terrestrial in origin. It took a LONG time, but I think it is there now.

First I bread-knifed the heck out of it to remove all the small chips. When I could run the edge of my thumbnail over the edge and not feel any I set about the long task of setting a bevel. I used three layers of tape to keep the bevel as narrow as possible. It seems pretty sharp now, except about 7mm at the heal which I had some trouble getting to the hone evenly. Oh well. The rest looks good, fairly even, and passes the HHT. I was warned about micro-chipping due to internal corrosion. It looks OK, and I'm hoping I drilled deep enough into good steel so it wont be an issue.

I'm currently trying to grow my beard REALLY fast so I can test shave with it. I want a couple of days growth for this badboy. I think it will do well.

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...u/WBbefore.jpg
Before

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...00137small.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...00143small.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...00148small.jpg

I never thought I'd say something like this: That pitting is fabulous! What a beautiful pitted out blade.

That is soooooooo cool!

I like it, I love such pittings. Be careful with this beauty!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HNSB

I never thought I'd say something like this: That pitting is fabulous! What a beautiful pitted out blade.

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Yeah, I consulted Oz before I started honing and he laughed his butt off at my questions which concerned "preserving the pitting". :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HNSB

I never thought I'd say something like this: That pitting is fabulous! What a beautiful pitted out blade.

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Couldn't have said it better.

That is totally cool. I have and really like the few blacked out blades that I have, but that pitting is a whole other level. I want one...

Congrats on taking something as dogs arse ugly as that razor in the first photo, and turning it into such a beautiful razor. I bow to you with the fanciest of waving arm type flourishes. A job well done.


Mick

That looks seriously cool! :bow

I thought it was a Damascus blade when I first saw the pictures.

Great job!

Thats so cool, nice work mate.
Grant

Very cool look to it. Normally I would pass a razor that looked like that by, but now I think I'll have to take a better look. Good job.

Just beautiful!

verry nice work, you should be proud as a peac.o.c.k.. I look foward to seeing more cool ideas for you from now on.:beer2:

That is very cool and probably worth more "pitted" that it would be if it had been totally restored.

I'm assuming you taped the spine to hone it since there appeats to be no new wear there.

Great job rescuing something that most of us would have overlooked.

Charlie

Nice! Now we shall spray blades with acid and hang em out in the tree to try and emulate that! Maybe bury them in the garden! AWESOME! Super original idea!:tu

Exceptionally cool. Love the look of that shiny bevel next to the pitted blade. Scales are great too.

Oh man. That is a wicked looking blade. Well done mate.

Dude!!! That's just Sick!!
Awesome job!

Very well done! :tu

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Legion

Yeah, I consulted Oz before I started honing and he laughed his butt off at my questions which concerned "preserving the pitting". :p

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Yup, need a new butt now :D
Well done dude! I think you need to put that one in the Rustiques club. No questions on eligibilty hehe..
Keep us posted on how the edge feels & how it weathers a few shaves.
Would be the icing on the cake if it shaves like a dream :gl:

Update: I am currently sporting an awesome BBS shave and a great big smile.

The razor performed flawlessly and went through my 2 1/2 day growth like, well, like a newly honed razor.

It was a bit weird for me to use at first. I'm used to much lighter hollow ground razors. But once I got past the sensation of shaving with a meat cleaver it was full steam ahead.

I think I'll use this razor exclusively for a week or two, just to make sure the edge isn't going to go wrong for some reason. But I looked at it under 60x magnification after shaving, and it all looked quite normal. And the shave was nice and smooth all the way through the three passes.

I think we can say the experiment was a success.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Legion

I think we can say the experiment was a success.

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And that a lotto ticket for Saturday wouldn't be overly superstitious :D
Congrats !

Quote:

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Originally Posted by onimaru55

And that a lotto ticket for Saturday wouldn't be overly superstitious :D
Congrats !

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I think the 15 minutes of bread knifing might have helped. God knows, it made making the new bevel a chore.

:dropjaw: 15 minutes of breadknifing ?

What did you start with?! A bloody 14/8 razor blade?!


Mick

Weeeelllll... Maybe a slight exaggeration. But it was a surprisingly long time. And now the side of my 800 hone has some serious furrows. I guess I took off between 1 and 2mm. It was butter knife blunt when I started honing.

There are easier ways that will save gouging your hones. Wet n dri, DMT's, wet grinder or even just free hand on your coarsest hone at about 45º.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by onimaru55

There are easier ways that will save gouging your hones. Wet n dri, DMT's, wet grinder or even just free hand on your coarsest hone at about 45º.

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Yeah, I realised I should have been using wet and dry after I had already been going for a while. I just honestly didn't expect it to take so long. Like I said, extra terrestrial steel in this one.

I did use the side of my hone, though, not the face. So no damage done.

That looks very cool! Nice work!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by onimaru55

There are easier ways that will save gouging your hones. Wet n dri, DMT's, wet grinder or even just free hand on your coarsest hone at about 45º.

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Now you tell him!!!! :)


Mick

He didn't ask before :p:)

Looks very interesting!

I may have to check out some more rusted blades.

Legion,
What steps did you take to remove the heavy rust/grime without removing the pitting? You did an awsome job by the way, sweet looking razor!

Louis.

I just sanded with 280 grit until it was clean and I liked the look of it, then jumped straight to 600, then 1000 and that's all. The black marks in the hollows are always the hardest to remove so I just left them there. Apart from the honing, the blade restore was actually easier than normal, because I didn't need a mirror finish.