Attachment 239332
This was very nerve wracking...
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Attachment 239332
This was very nerve wracking...
Attachment 239333
This was very nerve wracking...
I bet. I would have to make sure I'm relaxed, not stressed about anything & take my sweet time!
I really recommend drilling them off by hand that way after setting yourself a small guide divot. You have control in all planes then and can go slowly. I actually just put that blade to an aggressive coticule before I sand it a touch just to see how off the grind is since it has a tiny heel droop. It's not as whacked as I thought it would be. Rolling x is hitting everything well. It needs an exaggerated roll at the toe. Attachment 239334Attachment 239335Attachment 239336Attachment 239337
It's puzzling to me as it is a near wedge yet the front looks like it should be giving off wide bevel and spine when they are narrow in actuality. It's almost as if it was even more wedged out at some point and it was very slightly tweaked in its life to make the honing easier. It must have been like a kamisori with an excessively worn omote side at one point. Interesting.
I followed the instructions from some instrument maker page regarding ivory. Spent 24hrs clamped. They are way better than they were.Attachment 239439
Way betterAttachment 239440
Ivory does get moisturized quick quickly with light mineral oil.
Piggybacking on that, Working Instructions for Ivory and Bone
The quote below is from Boone Trading Company @ the link provided by Science Guy in post # 649. I don't have a dog in the fight, but I'm providing the information for those who might want both sides of the issue.
"Some knife makers and scrimshanders use mineral oil to protect the ivory from shrinking or cracking due to dry climate or lack of humidity; this seems to work best with slabs and thin pieces. Place the unpolished slabs in mineral oil for several days, then remove, wipe off and store in a plastic bag until you're ready to use it; the ivory will absorb some oil and after being sanded and polished will allow even less moisture to escape thereby reducing the possibility of shrinking and cracking. Another technique for oiling ivory is to put the ivory in a double boiler pan (water in bottom pan) with enough mineral oil to cover the ivory slices and gradually increase the temperature of the ivory to the point where the ivory sends up tiny bubbles of air/moisture. Leave the pan on the stove for about eight hours, and raise the temperature if the bubbling stops, but the oil should not be boiling. After the eight hours turn off the heat and allow to cool, wipe off the oil and store until you are ready to use; the moisture in the ivory has been replaced with oil, you will not be able to see a difference. We do not recommend these oil soaking treatments for fossil ivory, as it can get an oil soaked look. Your natural skin oil rubbed on ivory will help turn the ivory yellow faster and give it that antique look."
Personally I've never oiled ivory even when I've worked it, so I wouldn't think it would be necessary. But I do have full faith that Boone knows what they're talking about.
I do oil my ivory, under the advisement of the late Pixelfixed. I have had no issues with it becoming translucent.
Thank you kcb5150 for sharing your rescaling technique.
It the generous and clearly stated gift of experience that makes SRP so valuable - and preserves our art.
I sent this one to @Kevin78 for restoration and more appropriate scales. It turned out beautiful and is on deck for tomorrow.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...79038569d6.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...d0f1cd024d.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...001ea90442.jpg
Looking for info on the maker Roberts warranted on a old stub tail I just bought. I found other razors, but no info on the maker. No pics yet. Once I get it and clean her up I will.
So you won that one huh? I was watching it & my power went out so I had no internet. I'm glad someone from here got it. I already have one anyway.
I looked in my Tweedales Directory but there are too many Roberts listed in there. My Goins Encyclopedia has Roberts Warranted from 1850-1875 but I think that is wrong. Martin told me there were some inaccurate info in that book. My guess is early 1800's looking at the tail.
I was watching that one as well but totally forgot about it. Lol
Yeah I figure 1790 to 1810 but just a guess. Usually I find more info on these and loose the auction. Now I can't find info and win it. Seem like an interesting razor and an easy clean up, but have to wait and see.
Think of the stories that it could tell!
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Ran into a new issue with the Roberts warranted. The scales appear to have been treated painted or stained with some black substance. I think they are the original scales very thin yet still in good condition other than they touch on the back side. Because of this a few hundred years of nasty got stuck in them. So I did a simple green soak before neats foot oil. Well the simple green released whatever that black stuff on the scales was and stained the blade. It will come off with some light hand sanding just never seen this before. Any idea what they used back then and why it was on the scales to begin with?
A lot of old scales were dyed to make them either a solid color or to make them look more like tortoise. I have no idea what they used but it did not go very deep.
Some info on some processes from back then:
https://books.google.com/books?id=5i...q=horn&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=xV...20dyed&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=le...20dyed&f=false
A basic recipe seems to be combinations of calcium oxide, lead (II) oxide, and sometimes potassium carbonate. Dragon's Blood (a plant-derived red pigment) was used sometimes also. Other later recipes involve aniline (aminobenzene) treatments.
Any guess which process this may have been. I figured lead was involved.
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My only stub tail, acquired 2 weeks ago. lovely shaver I now see what all the fuss is about beauty and functionality, cant argue with that.
New acquisition. Clark cast steel. Steel seems in much better nick than it appears. Doesn't really have any serious craters.Attachment 243433Attachment 243434
Here's an old Wosty I got..........
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Best effort for now. I need to calculate the bevel angle to see what it does or doesn't needAttachment 243530
Found this one a couple weeks ago and have been meaning to add it here. I love this razor!
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The bevel angle toe is top of the list and each subsequent line is 1/4 down till the heel at the end.
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Did some initial work tonight
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Marshes & Shepard Stub. The faint remains of the tops of ENGLAND remain. No other tang marks to be found. Maybe she was reground at some point?
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Thank you, you are correct. I was going off the picture I took a while back. Grabbed the razor and my loop, it is English with very a very faint D before it. Super!
Forgot to add, the ivory has been laminated to g10 inside the scales....not sure if thats good, but thats how it came, already restored.
Old ivory laminated to G-10 is a good way to preserve it. Thin old ivory tends to get a little brittle. I have done it with old bone too.
Honed the clark on an old rock coticule. It took a pretty stunningly sharp edge. I had to abort the first two attempts to hone in order to ease back a bit of a belly this had by the spine on the back face that was making it act strange on the hones. You can see I got the bevel more or less equalized. I haven't shaved for a few days as you can see. Made me force the issue to get this going. Obliterated heavy growth effortlessly. Not too shabby for a late 1780s early 1790s blade that looked like solid rust a couple of weeks ago..Attachment 244101Attachment 244102Attachment 244103
I used tape wear and anomalies in the rear of the back bevel to map out what had to go and grinded out by hand very carefully using 400-2k wet dry followed by polish. Once I got that out of the way I hit the apex in short order.