Rodgers - Half Re-ground?!?!?!
I know, that reads really strange. Here's the scoop. I picked up a nice 3/4 Rodgers on the bay that looked like either a wedge or quarter hollow. The pics showed a clean and easy to restore blade with just a little staining and minor pitting that I'm OK with sanding myself. In sum it looks like a blade I'd use regularly, so I bid accordingly and won it. Here's a link to it:
Antique Straight Razor "JOSEPH RODGERS & SONS" BIGBLADE - eBay (item 320439333860 end time Oct-25-09 20:03:24 PDT)
It arrived today and as I was inspecting it, something about the blade geometry just didn't "feel" right. I cleaned up the little staining with some MAAS and felt wheel and got out the hones to keen it up. The moment I laid the blade on the stone it was obvious that it was a wedge, so went to look for the electrical tape. I laid the blade on the stone again but this time I put the other side face down - and it had magically turned into a quarter ground! I then looked at both sides much more carefully and realized that while the back side of the blade was still a wedge, the face side had been reground to a quarter hollow!
So I have 2 questions that I hope someone here here might be able to help with:
First, I like the blade and would love to keep it - but - how to hone it? Is there ANY way to hone a blade that has 2 different grinds, and if so, how might I go about that.
Second, (and this is a bit strange) since there are 2 different grinds, I became a little curious as to what else might be off-kilter with it. The only thing I could find was that the maker's mark is not deeply embedded like most all other Rogers' that I have. It APPEARS to have been laser etched but I'm not familiar enough with that technique to be sure. My point is, if the mark was indeed laser etched, and since there were no lasers back in 1890 or whenever this was made, well, I'm not sure what to think. I suspect you can possibly see it clearly enough in the 3rd photo. It LOOKS valid but the depth is exceptionally shallow, almost a surface thing with no depth. Also the star or asterisk next to the iron cross is very uneven when viewed live (it's not too obvious in the photo).
Thanks in advance for any insight that you may be able to shed on this. The seller is one that I've always had good dealings with in the past so I'm not suggesting any funny business there. I just want to make sure that if there's a way to reasonably hone this that I know about it before I ask to return it. Also I'm a little curious about the maker's mark as how that might have been created - mainly to be sure it's really a Rodgers.
It's a nice looker but if it can't be honed then it's of no worth to anyone.