Thread: HESS 1 w/cracked ice scales

5/8 HESS No. 1
Well it's been over a month since I got my HESS back from Chris @ RAZORPLATE (razorplate.com). So last week I decided to reassemble it. Spent the last two days trying to center the blade. Being the hinge holes are of plain, the blade always wanted to hit hard left.
So being resourceful, I did some poking around, and found I could make the scales plyable with heat. Boiled some distilled water, and steamed for about 5 minutes and presto. Forced to center.

Shaved this morning and what a dream.
Shot out to Chris @ razorplate.com wonderful and knowledgeable gentelman.

Now onto the show:


Before pic after disassembly:


Back from Chris before assembly:

Loverly bit of work. I wish I had used him for my Bottom Dial!
~Richard

Originally Posted by Geezer

Loverly bit of work. I wish I had used him for my Bottom Dial!
~Richard

Chris is wonderful. Very meticulous and perfect correspondence via email. Up late too.

Originally Posted by lethalgraphix

Chris is wonderful. Very meticulous and perfect correspondence via email. Up late too.

From the looks of it he is very committed to his work & I like that very much! Beautiful job.

that is some spectacular work! i really like how the gold wash goes over the spine

i have always wanted to try the steam/heat to straighten the scales on a dd golden edge and a wonderedge. does it have any effect on the brass inlays on the scales?

That's a keeper, turned out awesome!

Originally Posted by dooey

that is some spectacular work! i really like how the gold wash goes over the spine

i have always wanted to try the steam/heat to straighten the scales on a dd golden edge and a wonderedge. does it have any effect on the brass inlays on the scales?

I worried about that myself. That's why I pulled it at 5 minutes. I would say around 3 minutes is all that's really required.
My real concern was melting the scales on the metal of the pot.
I use to have a bamboo steam basket, but what I ended up doing was setting a glass bowl in the bottom of a pot of distilled water (to minimize mineral deposits on the blade), set to low. Tried to maintain 160-180F.

After removing from the pot, I positioned the scale to hold center, while blowing cool air over it with a fan.
You will need to re-snug the hinge pin aftr this.

Stunning razor.
Enjoy it..

It definitely turned out really beautiful. I don't have enough words to describe how nice it is!