Thread: BigSpedur's challenge

Originally Posted by bwknight

those are some great pictures, its much easier to see those than what the $10 radioshack microscope view gives you

now if we all had access to a nice imaging microscope ...

Smithsonian sells a nice imaging scope that goes to 220x and plugs directly into the pc via usp with 640X480 rez. you can get it at walmart.com for 70 bucks or so and otherplaces for like 88 or so. I think the light source is bottomside so you might have to jerry rig a decent topside light.

14 hours and counting.

I spent a lot of time on the yellow, de-nickifying the edge.
The best results were achieved by using medium pressure, and moving back and forth 5 times on the length of the stone, then flip the razor and do it again.
repeat this for hours...
But I have to say that the results are stunning. the nicks are gone, as are virtually all weird sunlight reflections.

It was very slow, but I have no in-between stone at the moment, and I did not want to mess up again.
It was fairly easy to judge progress by inspecting the color of the slurry.

the last hour I spent X ind normally, evening out the bevel to get it nice and polished evenly.

HHT still fails, but if I whack a hair on the edge, sometimes it will snap.

I took some new pictures:

toe


between toe and middle


middle


between middle and heel


heel


This was done with a magnification of ~120.

I have also put it under a quality microscope and with a 400x magnification there is still a lot of crud hanging on the edge, but I suspect this has to do with the fact that I have not stropped yet or used a pasted paddle.

Tomorrow I will backhone a couple of times on the blue, and then do a full pyramid. hopefully I will be able to do a successful testshave then.

Well I'm just sitting here watching the hours role by and laughing my butt off. Remember I had gotten to a point where it was arm hair shaving on part of the razor pretty good but wouldn't shave worth a damn. Honestly, I hope your successful. After all the time your putting in you deserve success. Its the mother of all project razors.

Well the edge is clean, and there is no reason why it shouldn't get there at this point. 1 or 2 pyramids, stropping on paste and then on leather should get it to at least the same point as my current straight.

The fact that the blade is curved like a katana means that I have to roll it carefully, but with enough patience, that should not be too hard.

I am going to try to tape the spine. Not that it is worth protecting anymore but that should increase the honing angle slightly so that I have a fraction better contact between the edge and the stone.

A lot will depend on what happens tonight. Believe me, I am not going to spend 10 more hours on this baby if it is going nowhere.

Originally Posted by Bruno

I am going to try to tape the spine. Not that it is worth protecting anymore but that should increase the honing angle slightly so that I have a fraction better contact between the edge and the stone.

It could also increase the stress on the edge enough to chip it again...

Originally Posted by mparker762

It could also increase the stress on the edge enough to chip it again...

But you are right of course.
I was just about to start honing.

Maybe a better idea would be to first try the pyramid without taping and see how that goes, and only tape when it is going nowhere.

14,5 hours.



I have just done a testshave. With and against the grain.
This was just as good as with my normal me-honed straight.

I can feel that there is still a little more to get out of this razor, but at this point I am satisfied with the result.
This thing is half an inch longer than my other knife. this one is 3,5 or possibly even a smidgen longer. I have to be careful not to poke in my ear or my jugular veins with the toe.

What I absolutely LOVE about this razor is the curve of the blade. it is curved like a japanese katana, and the feel on my cheeks it fabulous. It also has no problem at all with the curvings between my throat and my jugular veins. The curve of the blade sails smoothly through that area. My 'straight' straight has to do that area in several difficult passes, but not this one.

Ok... By now I think my enthousiasm has permeated into this post.

This one is definitely a keeper. The coming week I will do some stropping on the pasted strop to improve the edge a bit, but other than that it doesn't need much more. I will not be updating this thread for much longer, since I have shown that this razor is hone-able.

The challenge was met, and I am the victor. I have really learned a lot, and I would like to publically thank Nelson for giving me this opportunity.

I will probably also make a set of custom scales for this one because it is worth it.

Tata...

WTG Bruno! Now you can smash it with a big sledgehammer

Congratulations, I bow to the honemeister.

Enjoy it, you've certainly earned it.