Thread: Novelty Cutlery Co... driving me slowly toward the ceiling fan with rope in hand

This thing is making me crazy. It's a Novelty 5/8 I got a while back that I'm doing a restore on. When I got it, it was just the blade, and apparently someone had started to restore it but decided not to. The blade was in very good shape, but it had been breadknifed. So, I ran it through the hone gauntlet. 1000 King, 4000/8000 Norton, 12,000(?) Chinese... not sharp enough. I decided that maybe I needed to lap my hones, perhaps that was the reason it wasn't coming out the way I wanted. So, I lapped them all down. Sure enough, my 4000 was in odd shape, so I thought I may have solved the problem. Took it to the 1000 to reset the bevel, checking it with my loupe throughout the whole thing, got it looking beautiful and passing the TNT and shavin'.... ok, well, not shaving arm hair, because like many of you fine upstanding gentlemen, my left forearm looks like the goddamn Bonneville Salt Flats; so I have resorted to my calf. (thank god for winter weather and the overall lack of temperatures requiring shorts)
Long story short... I'm convinced the bevel is good. Ran it through a 15/5, 10/5, 5/5, 3/5, 1/5, 1/5 pyramid until it would pass the... uh... calf hair test, then moved it up to 1/5, 1/5, 3/5, 5/5, 3/5, 1/5, 1/5, 1/7. Just like with the bevel, I've been looking at this damn thing through a loupe the whole time, edge looks slick. TPT felt great, but I couldn't get it to pass the HHT to save my life. I decided, "Well, many people say the HHT isn't all that accurate necessarily anyway." So I moved on to the 12,000 for about 60 licks... starting with a slurry, then diluting every 10 passes until the water was clear as the Gulf of Mexico used to be. The TPT? Sharpest, smoothest thing I've ever had my hands on that wasn't a woman. Still, no HHT. Decided f#%k the HHT, stropped and shaved. Lotta pulling and scraping... took it back to the second 4000/8000 pyramid and repeated steps 6 through 10 or whatever. Still no good. Repeated again, same results. Any new approach ideas would be appreciated. I have no idea at this point.

This is the first time I've tried any blade that was at the complete starting line... tis driving me crazy after all the hours I've put into it.

Everything you did after the 1k the very first time was a complete waste of time... the bevel isn't set ...

If the edge was 90° breadknifed then it needs to be stepped back down from 60° then 30° to 3 layers of tape then 1 layer or no layers depending on your choice...This is the essential part of the process that people miss... Most blades don't even need 90° breadknifing but people miss that too...

The process is done step by step on my Youtube channel but I don't link it here because too many newbies don't read the warnings, if you follow the steps I can correct them in 6 minutes... If you follow the steps you loose way less steel then you already have


Why do I think this ????

Right here: ok, well, not shaving arm hair, because like many of you fine upstanding gentlemen, my left forearm looks like the goddamn Bonneville Salt Flats; so I have resorted to my calf. (thank god for winter weather and the overall lack of temperatures requiring shorts)
Long story short... I'm convinced the bevel is good.

You should have no doubt the bevel is good it should easily pop leg hair at all points along the edge... Now if you tell me it did then I have one other possiblity but it is very doubtful...

Originally Posted by kamikazeproject

because like many of you fine upstanding gentlemen, my left forearm looks like the goddamn Bonneville Salt Flats

Spot on! LMAO

And don't use the ceiling fan, it'll never support the weight

Glenn said "Everything you did after the 1k the very first time was a complete waste of time... the bevel isn't set .."


What Glen said. It might not be comfortable, or fun, but you should actually be able to shave off your 1k. If you can't remove arm hairs, or calf hairs, or any other body hairs -- with ease -- your bevel isn't set. And... when your bevel is set, you're still not done with your 1k, as you should do at least another 20 or more laps with steadily decreasing pressure to begin the process of refining that edge.

The hanging hair test is more of a hair test than an edge test, if you want my opinion.

Right on, back to the ol' grindstone.... literally. haha It was popping hairs all along the edge, but I'm sure you're right. Like I said, I've never messed with one this close to the starting line, so to speak.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

If the edge was 90° breadknifed then it needs to be stepped back down from 60° then 30° to 3 layers of tape then 1 layer or no layers depending on your choice...This is the essential part of the process that people miss... Most blades don't even need 90° breadknifing but people miss that too...

The process is done step by step on my Youtube channel but I don't link it here because too many newbies don't read the warnings, if you follow the steps I can correct them in 6 minutes... If you follow the steps you lose way less steel then you already have.

Haha, that figures, Glenn... I've watched some of your videos, but I guess I haven't seen the ones covering this... probably would have come in handy, I'll go have a look and see what magic I can accomplish on this thing.

I'm happy to report that you guys were indeed correct. Glenn, I watched that video you were talking about... worked wonders. Also, I actually left the chinese out of the final run. For some reason, it seems like it's actually doing more harm than good coming off the norton 8000... not sure why. At any rate, she's all stropped up and ready to rock.

I love success stories - don't forget to let us know how you go.