Thread: Antique Shop Find - But what is it???

Originally Posted by Utopian

The rounding of the toe was often done deliberately. Some barber's manuals gave instruction in how to do it, so technically it shouldn't be considered "poor sharpening." I cannot tell from the photo that there is a frown so it should not take long to fix it. Once you have that corrected you can hone away.

Absolutely. I've noticed that when it comes to shaving, I am occasionally not perfect. Rounded points like this have probably saved me several gallons of blood. My guess is that many barbers recognized that digging up their customers was not a good business practice. I've seen dozens of razors honed this way and the rest of the blade was honed perfectly. It simply had to be deliberate, and to my mind, wise.

You're right about the frown, which is why I highlighted it (I'm a Quality Assurance Manager, so I'm damn picky). I only noticed it by setting the edge on a glass table and rocking it. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes to work that out.

I wasn't aware that the rounding of the toe was sometimes intentional, so that's possibly good news.

Yes, do not “straighten” the edge, you will lose too much of the blade.

I would, lose the frown and remove/round the beginning of a heel spur. Make the heel match the couture of the toe and make it smile, a cardboard template of the toe and magic marker traced on to the heel, or eyeball it.

You may be able to save the scales with steel wool and WD40 and some wet and dry, they may be horn. I also would steel wool the blade, leaving some patina and make it a shaver.

Nice find, that it is rare… even nicer.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Yes, do not “straighten” the edge, you will lose too much of the blade.

Without a doubt. I'm sure the profile was close to straight before. I had no idea that it was common to contour the toe like that, so I'm glad I pointed it out for the other guys to comment on. There's just a slight hump in the first 1/3rd of the edge that I'll have to take out to get the smile back.

On a related note, one of the other guys mentioned the patina. I was considering bead blasting it to get some rust spots off the tang and jimps. Considering the relative age of the blade, does that adversely affect the historical value. A.Vedel doesn't appear to have been a prolific or preferred manufacturer. Since it's in relatively good shape, I think it would respond well to blasting and polishing. Perhaps even back to a mirror finish.