Originally Posted by
PaulFLUS
Whoa! That was a lot.
I admit I didn't read all or even most of all that but just on the surface it seems a lot like work to buy razors for the purpose of toiling over. Why not buy things that are free form all the problems, are made of decent steel and are worth having once you're done? Remember, once you have done all that messing around with it you still have cheap Chinese made crap. It reminds me of the adage, "you can't make chicken salad out of chicken manure."
I get the adventure aspect and the for the sake of the endeavor part I guess but my thought is, if you want to do a bunch of work to a blade why not make them yourself?
That's just my thoughts. I bought one or two and did what you are doing and at the end of it all I had significantly improved mediocre razors with no real or even palpable value. You'll never be able to sell it and recoup a mere pittance for your efforts.
If the point is to learn it seems to me that these don't really represent well anything that you would want to keep anyway. And, again, if you want to really get an understanding of what goes into repair and correcting blade geometry make some yourself. You don't have to forge them. Get some bar stock or some old large files and anneal them in a stoked charcoal fire and shape them by stock removal. That's how I got started.
Then, at the end of it all, once you have learned what it takes for it to take shape, take a bevel and shave plus learned how to craft one you will end up with a one of a kind, custom razor.