Thread: 146 Regent St -- A very strange razor.

[QUOTE=Voidmonster;1068937 ...I'm about 65% confident that there was a T, in a larger die, just above 'E' in REGENT St. If I match the size and typeface, KENSINGTON lines up perfectly. However, only the T matches. The tiny remnants of other letters really don't... [/QUOTE]

Zak - here's one of Kensington's trade cards - note that the first name is abbreviated - no hint of a 'T' there...



Regards,
Neil

PS: I just looked at the Magnaflux link you provided and a few other websites, including youtube videos, etc - seems that the National FireArms Forensic lab use it to recover obliterated marks, too. Very interesting - thanks for posting that!

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

Interesting stuff - I have the necessary chemicals and blances, so I might play about with some myself if the need arises!

Regards,
Neil

Careful, Neil! Remember the still fire?

Tom

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Careful, Neil! Remember the still fire?

Tom

I had a sense of foreboding the moment I entered that, Tom - I expect you are awaiting dire consequences, now!

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

Zak - here's one of Kensington's trade cards - note that the first name is abbreviated - no hint of a 'T' there...



Regards,
Neil

PS: I just looked at the Magnaflux link you provided and a few other websites, including youtube videos, etc - seems that the National FireArms Forensic lab use it to recover obliterated marks, too. Very interesting - thanks for posting that!

Thank you VERY much for Kensington's trade card! That'll help!

--

I jumped in with both feet and did a poor job with the magnetic attempt, but it did get me microscopically closer. You can now definitely see that there are letterforms above 146 Regent St.



You can't make ANYTHING out on that image, but you can tell there were letters on it.

I hadn't read anything at all about the magnaflux process and I just took a couple of neo magnets, my DMT 1k, a broken razor blade, and an old pipette we'd used to give medicine to our cat years ago.

The magnet went onto the back of the blade, I used the old razor and the DMT to make a lot of steel dust and then I experimented.

Pointlessly.

Because I need to polish tang smooth to get the effect, and I'm out of time for experiments now.

I did learn some things about the process though. Stronger magnets seem to be a little bit better, but I have the distinct feeling you can easily overdo it. I didn't used anything resembling my strongest one -- just the magnet from an old 3.5" hard drive, and I felt like it was borderline too-strong. The particles couldn't move around much due to the high strength of the field. Water worked alright, glycerine worked better. Oil will probably work best. No point in using the alcohol.

The way forensics labs do magnaflux is to polish the surface and use ferrous particles in an oil suspension. The surface is magnetized, the oil applied and then it's vibrated. I'm just going to use my ultrasonic jewelry cleaner for that last part, and I ought to have time to do this all tonight.

Just wanted to congratulate you on an unusual find. Thank you for sharing it!

No advice forthcoming. You seem to have it covered with strategies I'd never heard of until now. Thanks for those too!