Spine Work. Do you LOVE it. or PASS it? What are yalls opinions?

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08-08-2011, 03:45 PM
vvti713

Spine Work. Do you LOVE it. or PASS it? What are yalls opinions?

So far i have 3 razors with spine work that are in my rotation, and one that needs to be fixed. I love spine work.. it makes the blade look like a work of art (though every blade is a work of art regardless) there are some cons though IMO. i found when honing with tape on the spine its a bit awkward to place tape on the spine with major spine work.. also hone wear is very noticeable.. give me yalls feedback and pictures of your blades with worked spines! =]
http://straightrazorpalace.com/attac...t-case-rc1.jpg
08-08-2011, 03:55 PM
tekbow

For me i guess i can take or leave it, if it's on a razor i like the look of i'll buy it, but it doesn't play any real part in the overall asthetic for me
08-08-2011, 04:01 PM
thehekler

Love it!! Especially on barber notched or spainish point razors... I don't like the filed back nearly as much as the scalloped but I do enjoy both.
08-08-2011, 04:48 PM
thebigspendur

I like to distinguish working razors from show razors. I'll take my working razors pretty plain, maybe some minor spine work is fine but when you get to any fancy stuff whether it's intricate spine work or gold wash for example I try to avoid it and use those razors on rare occasions. I have a few but no pics readily available.

I don't find taping the spines to be an issue on those at all.
08-08-2011, 04:59 PM
stimpy52

You rarely see pretty spine work on low-quality razors. If you're shopping, and come across a razor with a worked back, it's likely from the upper tier of that maker's assortment. It should be worth a second look.
08-08-2011, 07:03 PM
savalis1971

I think it's real nice. I had a look at your razors and they looked fantastic!
08-08-2011, 09:46 PM
Stubear

It depends in the blade for me. Some of my blades have spine work, others don't. Just depends on whether I like the look of the blade I guess! :)
08-09-2011, 01:27 AM
HamburgO

1 Attachment(s)

My Thiers Issard Eagle 6/8 has a beautifully worked spine . So far, I've only had to strop it, and that has not been a problem. We'll see how it goes on the coticule...

Attachment 75444
08-09-2011, 02:27 AM
vvti713

Quote:

Originally Posted by HamburgO

My Thiers Issard Eagle 6/8 has a beautifully worked spine . So far, I've only had to strop it, and that has not been a problem. We'll see how it goes on the coticule...

Attachment 75444

i have one just like that it has the same etching but the gold leaf has been rubbed off. i have a nice Dovo B.Lowe, and another vintage german blade with spinework! i just posted up some pics!
08-09-2011, 02:51 AM
JimmyHAD

Before I had one I wanted a razor with spine work so bad I could taste it. After I got a few of them the 'thrill was gone' and it wasn't such a 'big' thing. The way it is now it all depends on the spine work. Like any work of artistic talent it depends on the design and execution. The more we get the more discriminating we become I guess.
08-09-2011, 04:35 AM
TwistedOak

I'm along the same lines as Spendur... I don't like heavily worked/intricate spines because I wouldn't want to use them as often. I do like simpler designs on spines though.
08-24-2011, 11:20 AM
decraew

I also love the look of those razors but (I don't know whether it's been mentionned before) some of those razors scratch my strop which is an issue for me. Like this one:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12489678/Thi...ils%281%29.JPG
08-24-2011, 11:29 AM
mainaman

Quote:

Originally Posted by decraew

I also love the look of those razors but (I don't know whether it's been mentionned before) some of those razors scratch my strop which is an issue for me. Like this one:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12489678/Thi...ils%281%29.JPG

You can ease the corners with some high grit sand paper.
08-25-2011, 04:02 AM
Michaelshane

I hate it when someone does that to a vintage blade.
08-25-2011, 01:38 PM
Indesio

Dosen't matter. Is a way to reduce weight, right. It gets better on photographs, right too. You shave with the spine? not at all.

Salu2.
Indesio.
08-25-2011, 01:49 PM
JohnnyCakeDC

I'm not so much a fan. My favorite razors to look at don't have spine work.
08-25-2011, 05:48 PM
Hubsche1

Don't have any at the moment, but one is on the way...

I like the way they look, but I also believe that a good razor doesn't NEED a worked spine.

Stimpy is right, in my books- an old razor with a worked spine implies that they're higher quality, at the top of that maker's price range for that time period. So that can be good.
08-25-2011, 06:52 PM
DerekC

I've got a Dovo Best Quality with spine work and a third rest-pin. That's interesting to me, since the Best Quality is seen as Dovo's "Budget Razor" and is usually plain-jane. Beautiful to look at, and shaves wonderfully. One of my faves.
08-25-2011, 07:02 PM
Maximilian

For me personally form and function primes. Lots of file work, especially on the spine is not part of it. It's a pain to hone at times and tape layering is pretty much a must. It can damage the strop especially if some of the file work is pointy or not well smoothed out and eventually just like jimps depending the file work, will oxidize real fast if not properly maintained. As a show case and looker, yes, it can be gorgeous. To have on a razor that is used for daily shaving, no, it's not really needed.
08-26-2011, 03:21 AM
Ryan82

I have a few razors with fancy spines. I don't mind them, it's something different. But I have long complained that the filed spine on my Dovo Bismarck will scratch the crap out of my strop - my solution was to tape the spine for stropping. A minor nuisance I suppose, but I keep her because she looks pretty and shaves very well. :)
08-26-2011, 11:23 AM
Snuff

I have some but got rid of others because they where damaging my strops and stones if not taped. If I would be a collector I wouldn't mind beautiful spine work, but I'm more into it for the shaving and prefer razors without a lot of spine work.
08-27-2011, 06:56 PM
Scipio

If it's there then great, if it isn't then I'm not bothered. Grind and steel are more important, similarly I give more weight to scale material or design. I use my blades and while some are works of art I think many forget that they have a purpose, wishing for them to remain pristine forever taping the spine to prevent any wear and literally pampering them. They are tools. If they are for a display, then they are wall art. I try not to mix the two.
08-27-2011, 07:12 PM
niftyshaving

If it scratches your strop lighten the pressure and or find a
more forgiving strop. A CrOx pasted strop will polish some
burrs but not all.

Consider adding tape before stropping it.
08-27-2011, 09:43 PM
Snuff

thanks for the advice niftyshaving, I already strop very light. I only have one strop, a TM traditional. Taping the razor every time I strop is something that bothers me. I do have a loom strop with paste, I'll try that and see what gives. Have a nice weekend.
10-27-2017, 12:22 AM
adductum

I just love my Thiers Issard razors with spine work.How can one love a piece of metal,they have some kind of life in them.
I love them with a warm fuzzy feeling not biblical love.
You muck up the geometry if you tape the spine when honing
10-27-2017, 01:09 AM
thebigspendur

Quote:

Originally Posted by adductum

I just love my Thiers Issard razors with spine work.How can one love a piece of metal,they have some kind of life in them.
I love them with a warm fuzzy feeling not biblical love.
You muck up the geometry if you tape the spine when honing

One layer of tape never hurt anything and if you have an ornate spine it will remain pristine. Most guys who hone for a business tape the spine to protect it.
10-27-2017, 02:07 AM
BobH

Quote:

Originally Posted by adductum

I just love my Thiers Issard razors with spine work.How can one love a piece of metal,they have some kind of life in them.
I love them with a warm fuzzy feeling not biblical love.
You muck up the geometry if you tape the spine when honing

How do you muck up the geometry if you use a layer of tape on the spine while honing?

Bob
10-28-2017, 12:11 AM
niftyshaving

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobH

How do you muck up the geometry if you use a layer of tape on the spine while honing?

Bob

Like any honing process the details matter over time.
If you always tape the spine then the edge will get closer and closer to
the spine and the angle of the steel will get larger and larger and the
edge not as fine...

So in 50 years the geometry suffers.

The reverse can be seen on some old razors where the heavy hand of
someone has abraded the spine and the edge is now so acute that the
steel cannot support the edge.

I have a razor that I stupidly played with using a heavy hand and I wrecked the spine.
Now that the spine is messed up the razor is hard as heck to hone.

So -- yes tape the spine... Tape is good for beginners and does protect
gold and file work on a prized razor....

Once a razor is shaving well, most honing can be done at 8K or even 12K
so there is no terrible worry one way or the other.

But play with a DMT, 500 grit or 1K aggressive hone like I did, tape would have save
my razor from abuse....

My advice use a layer of tape for the early days of honing.
10-28-2017, 12:21 AM
JBHoren

Spine Work. Do you LOVE it. or PASS it? What are yalls opinions?

I pass on it. The last spine work I liked was on the Cylons.
10-28-2017, 12:32 AM
sharptonn

1 Attachment(s)

I am like JB. Never been much on the ornate spine, esp overdone ones such as those old Bokers.
Seems like the decoration takes a back seat to what is important to me. Indeed, a 13/16 overall blade is typically a 5/8 from actual spine to edge on some as the entire top quarter of the blade is purely decoration..

Something light and non-intrusive is preferable to me. If at all........

Attachment 276659
10-28-2017, 12:33 AM
BobH

Quote:

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

Like any honing process the details matter over time.
If you always tape the spine then the edge will get closer and closer to
the spine and the angle of the steel will get larger and larger and the
edge not as fine...

So in 50 years the geometry suffers.

The reverse can be seen on some old razors where the heavy hand of
someone has abraded the spine and the edge is now so acute that the
steel cannot support the edge.

I have a razor that I stupidly played with using a heavy hand and I wrecked the spine.
Now that the spine is messed up the razor is hard as heck to hone.

So -- yes tape the spine... Tape is good for beginners and does protect
gold and file work on a prized razor....

Once a razor is shaving well, most honing can be done at 8K or even 12K
so there is no terrible worry one way or the other.

But play with a DMT, 500 grit or 1K aggressive hone like I did, tape would have save
my razor from abuse....

My advice use a layer of tape for the early days of honing.

My question was a rhetorical one, sorry if that was not clear. Yes, I realize all that. That would have been a far better statement for the quoted poster to make rather than the blanket "You muck up the geometry if you tape the spine when honing". A statement like that is misleading and incomplete while yours is not. How many members new to honing would take that blanket statement to heart and heavy handedly, I think most of us were heavy handed at the start, whittle down the spine ruining the geometry for lack of using tape.

Bob
10-28-2017, 12:36 AM
sharptonn

Ya, another tape/no tape thread is not needed, I think! ;)
10-28-2017, 01:08 PM
Gasman

I like the scaloped spines but not so much on the fine detailed spines. I like it to stand out not blend in.
10-28-2017, 02:39 PM
JP5

1 Attachment(s)

I like spine work, although I can see how it can be a hindrance in some cases. Here is the spine of a Boker 'Trophy' I recently acquired.

Attachment 276700
10-28-2017, 03:12 PM
Wightman

I love the scallops, etching, engraving etc... I like it all. But I have flashy style. I'd love to own/create a fully engraved or etched blade and scales one day. Think it would be neat. I don't have any scalloped/worked spines yet. Just one that I did on a razor I had to make a custom shorty anyways, so I figured why not work on it a bit and practice... made scales for it and everything. Realized from it not seating even when closed the blade was bent from about the heel out to the toe. So I was trying to straighten and bend it back and it just wouldn't go, and I shattered it... moment of silence for a fallen comrade fellas :cry::banghead: was not impressed at all. But now I know not to try.
I do have a couple engraved spines i'll throw up later when I have some time to take picks and transfer them over. And I want to unpin and clean up the two Brookes and crooks twins first.
10-28-2017, 04:02 PM
JP5

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wightman

I love the scallops, etching, engraving etc... I like it all. But I have flashy style. I'd love to own/create a fully engraved or etched blade and scales one day. Think it would be neat. I don't have any scalloped/worked spines yet. Just one that I did on a razor I had to make a custom shorty anyways, so I figured why not work on it a bit and practice... made scales for it and everything. Realized from it not seating even when closed the blade was bent from about the heel out to the toe. So I was trying to straighten and bend it back and it just wouldn't go, and I shattered it... moment of silence for a fallen comrade fellas :cry::banghead: was not impressed at all. But now I know not to try.
I do have a couple engraved spines i'll throw up later when I have some time to take picks and transfer them over. And I want to unpin and clean up the two Brookes and crooks twins first.

Not sure how you would straighten more fragile tempered steel without heating it first (and ruining the temper).
Also, are you sure it was actually bent? I had a razor that was ground so unevenly that the edge wouldn't lie flat on a hone. If you held it up straight on front of your eye you could see how the edge ran diagonally instead of vertically like it should.
10-28-2017, 04:09 PM
Wightman

Yea, even laying it flat you could see the run off. I dunno how it got bent.. but I'm guessiñ it had something to do with the big crack it had in it as to why I chopped it down to a shorty. But really I still don't know how it would have bent like that, as I found out, they are not easy to bend(or at least to reform bent anyways). And I had it even by spacing the one inside with a decent washer, but like summitry and thought it was kind of gody, so I insisted on trying to straighten it... fool. Lol oh well, now I know. I do hate losing a razor to my own foolishness tho, it always hurts a little.

And not trying to highjack the thread here guys.:HJ