Thread: Big Shoes - Shepherd

OK Folks,

Mike (outback) did a stupendous job with that Shepherd razor, the scale repair is essentially invisible without magnification, and the razor is freakin’ beautiful. What a wonderful craftsman Mike is!

Now I have to hone the razor and do a job that doesn’t detract from his craftsmanship. The razor is not exactly standard, the bevel angle is only about 12.5 degrees. So that hot mess on the spine is 4 layers of electrical tape shielded with 1 layer of 1 mil Kapton, and I have a bevel angle ranging from 16.5 to 17.5 degrees along the edge. I actually measured the angle with the tape in place before I started.

There were some tiny chips - imagine that after 200+ years - so the first task was to Sharpie the bevel and see how it hit the 1k Shapton Glass. Not too badly, weak at the heel as you might imagine, and I used sliding strokes, the corner of the stone a la Glen, and circles/ellipese at the heel and got the chips out and new bevels formed. See image 1.

Next up, a 2k Shapton Glass HR, my normal bevel setter, and after coaxing the edge at the heel again, I was rewarded with a nice clean HHT at 2k. Next, a Shapton Glass 6k HC (high carbon), the next stone in my normally 2-stone synth progression, a little stropping, and I had silent HHT all along the edge. Finally, a 2-stage finish with a Nakayama something, deep layer stone and probably a sunashi suita. It will remove 1k Chosera scratches in 35 normal honing strokes on it’s own slurry, so that’s what I did for pre-finish, to get a little more refinement on the bevel. Finally, the same stone with tomo slurry and I’m done after stropping. Shave tomorrow!

Thanks again to Mike, and I’ll try to follow up with some more images of his incredible work - it’s simply unbelievable what he did with this razor.

And some more images....

Beautiful! That’s some razor, Mike has excelled himself. To be honest I’m a little green eyed

I never worry too much about honing the so called heel, on these types. You can't shave with it properly, anyhow.

But, I'm really curious to what you think of the shave, more than anything.

I like this type of grip, while shaving.with these blades. Better control, and I don't have to worry about my thumb.

I’ve shaved with my Warburton Lisbon which is a very similar vintage. It shaves very smoothly, just as you describe. However, with the right jnat and tomo, I can make that same feeling on many razors. The key seems to be harder, fine grained razor steel. Heljestrand, old French, Filarmonica, most all of them will support an edge like that with a good jnat. What’s surprising is that they made steel that good 100 years before the Bessemer process. The Warburton and the Shepherd are surprisingly hard steel.

Stand by for a shave report tomorrow morning. I expect goid things from the HHT.

Originally Posted by outback

I never worry too much about honing the so called heel, on these types. You can't shave with it properly, anyhow. ...

That’s true, you can’t. The bevel at the ‘heel’ on this one had some chips and was mangled a bit so I thought it wasn’t a bad idea to clean things up a little. What I didn’t want was a piece of edge that would just catch and pull hair or had sharp edged chips. I’m still feeling these out as far as how far down to hone the edge goes, but at least I do know how to cause no harm. I think, lol.

Shaved like a dream! I found the blade shape very accommodating on the neck and chin, and the edge itself was smooth as butter.

Beautiful blade & scales! I'm guessing this is late 17th/early 18th-century?

Yes, late 1700s

I would expect a very soft, smooth edge from that,.. receptive to jnats, Eschers, etc..
I think those circles on the scales one housed metal pieces..