Thread: Sad little ducks?

Gentle shavers,

I have these two Dubl Ducks from a batch of razors I bought a couple of years ago, and questions about them. First, the pictures:







The orange-scaled one is a Satin Wedge and the yellow-scaled one is a Special No. 1. Hone wear is significant; honed-out toes and broad, uneven spines. Otherwise the blades are sound, no pitting.

And my questions are...

1) can they be dated from the info on the tangs?
2) were these models originally 4/8 or 5/8 blades?
3) is the Special No. 1 honed so close to the stabilizer that I shouldn't bother with it any more?

I have no experience with Ducks. I've read here that they're very honer-friendly and shave sweetly, but are these two too far gone?

Is it just me or does the Special No. 1 have a slight frown on the edge? I'm referring to your 3rd pic, and maybe it's just the shadow playing w/my eyes.

Good question, Maple. I just checked them against the bathroom mirror and neither frowns. Just a shadow, or a wave in the graph paper.

I have no honing experience. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Rien. Nil. Other than my Swaty, and that doesn't count.
That being said, I've seen my old barber (retired since December) hone up worse looking razors than those, so hope exists for the lil' ducks!

Tomorrow I'll borrow my son and his camera, then you guys can see a frowning blade! I've been in contact with Roughkype, and he suggested that I post some pics. I've been hesitant to post pics of it for fear of any possible ridicule I would receive for buying such a wreck. But, I need to know if it's saveable or just my new garlic slicer.

Back tomorrow!! Thanks, donv

These pictures didn't come out as well as I wanted, I'll try again, but here's these.

I'll try a different background, and a different camera. Can this be salvaged??

I think it can, but I'd put it into the hands of a pro like gsixxgun, who would straighten it out with a minimal removal of metal. It'll take a gentle touch to preserve the stabilizer while straightening the edge back out.

If the reflection truly matches the hone wear in your pic against notebook paper, you can see where the honing was heavy-handed in the middle of the guy's stroke. That caused both the wider hone wear at the spine and the frown in the blade.

Any of us can do that over time; the trick is to develop good honing habits at the outset, or to include strokes that mitigate against them. Most important is to develop an even stroke, then later as you encounter used blades, learn the heel-leading and rolling x strokes to prevent or correct slight frowns.

But this one is more than slight. Looks like it was a lifetime razor of a heavy honer. A first-time restorer would be tempted to leap in and breadknife the edge til it was parallel to the spine, but that wouldn't do anything to correct the hone wear on the spine and would waste an awful lot of metal. An experienced restorer would know how to keep as much metal as possible, and would also know the spine needs to be tuned along with the edge.

Myself, I would not step up to do this one for you. I only know in theory how it should play out. I've had one breadknifing tragedy in my own collection, so I know the cost of that error. Yours is too nice a blade to learn on--as was mine :-(

Ducks are very desirable razors; I think it's worth investing in a restore. I'd love to watch a resto like that; I've seen chips honed out but not a big frown corrected. If you were fantastically lucky, there would be a meetup near you soon, with a honemeister attending, and you could take it as a demo blade.

Good luck with it, and best wishes to you.

thanks Roughkype!

The closest meet I've seen is coming up in October in Washington, if I can make it I sure as heck will!! Hey, till then, I can always use it as a screwdriver!!


donv

Originally Posted by donv

Tomorrow I'll borrow my son and his camera, then you guys can see a frowning blade! I've been in contact with Roughkype, and he suggested that I post some pics. I've been hesitant to post pics of it for fear of any possible ridicule I would receive for buying such a wreck. But, I need to know if it's saveable or just my new garlic slicer.

Back tomorrow!! Thanks, donv

No one here will ridicule you for posting pictures of any razors you have purchased. Man, I have purchased some razors that make yours look like NOS. Learning never stops with wetshaving and you will get some sound advice about any razor you post and have questions about. I think your razor can certainly live to shave once again. Glad to have you here donv. Enjoy.