Making new blades for an old French frameback?

I recently got an old French frameback (not one of the swiss Lecoultre ones) with a replaceable blade. The blade it comes with, unfortunately, has been honed to a pretty bad frown.

Now I'm wondering, how hard would it be to get a piece of good steel of the right thickness and get it watercut to replace the blade? Seems like it shouldn't be a big deal at all.

Of course the bigger deal might actually be getting the honed-out blade removed, as it's pretty well rusted in...

It looks to me like this frameback would probably take Lecoultre blades if I could get some, but again, that'll require de-rusting it enough to get the blade it's got out.

It's definitely removable, as it has a set-screw on the toe. It's in otherwise excellent condition.

You might as Charlie Lewis. He makes some great looking frame backs.

I would start soaking the rust with some type of penetrating oil, pb blaster, liqued wrench, something of the sort. I would spray the blade every now and then and let it work and seep in for a few days. If that does not work you can heat the blade up with a torch to help loosen the blade.

I would measure the thickness of the blade and see if you can find some precision ground O1 tool steel or some 1095 spring steel that is the same thickness. Once you have the right thickness of metal cutting and grinding a blade to the right shape abound the perimeter will not be that hard. Then you need to have the blade heat treated and then grind the blade to thickness at the edge.

Charlie

Neat idea, I have a frame back similar to yours, that I could use extra blades with. Anyone offering to make these or could???

I just realized I posted this in the gallery section and then didn't include pictures. :shrug:

When I get back, I'll document it thoroughly!

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Originally Posted by spazola

I would start soaking the rust with some type of penetrating oil, pb blaster, liqued wrench, something of the sort. I would spray the blade every now and then and let it work and seep in for a few days. If that does not work you can heat the blade up with a torch to help loosen the blade.

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Excellent! That's exactly what I'll do, then!

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I would measure the thickness of the blade and see if you can find some precision ground O1 tool steel or some 1095 spring steel that is the same thickness. Once you have the right thickness of metal cutting and grinding a blade to the right shape abound the perimeter will not be that hard. Then you need to have the blade heat treated and then grind the blade to thickness at the edge.

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Pretty much what I was thinking there. I won't really know until I've got it apart, but I strongly suspect that the Lecoultre blades will fit in it. If so, it would be kind of neat to get a bunch of blades made up for these razors. I'll see if I can get that ball rolling.

Would love to see how this pans out. I looked at mine, it says A.U. Arebenz, (Quality Garantie) + JOUGNE +