Dahlgren Ongoing Resurrection

Here are some eBay pics of a blade I picked up a week or so ago (hope the seller doesn't mind me using the pix). I really like the shape of the blade and of course it's Swedish so I couldn't resist the challenge - can't rest anything that came from Eskiltuna. My idea is to regrind the blade and lose the nasty bevel (assuming that's what it is) as well as the odd hone marks at the top. Looks like someone went to town on this girl and lost track of time. It's as close to a wedge as I've seen out of Sweden so I can grind it more than a hollow ground.

I may name her Inga... stands for "I Need Gentle Attention". Maybe not...

Today I'm in the process of grinding all the sins off the blade. Just finished some time at 600 greaseless but it wasn't nearly enough to get the job done without 5 reapplications of compound. So I dropped to 400 and it's starting to look better. Another half hour and I think it may be ready to go back to 600 and then hand sanding. The pitting is pretty deep in places so I may want to get it all polished up and then drop back to 600 or so for a satin finish. Doing a final mirror finish may just accentuate the pits that will remain.

The scales aren't too bad, but I may gin up a design to replace them anyway. I'm thinking streaked horn but if anyone has seen a blade like this in something better I'm more that willing to go that way. I suspect the key will be that the lines of the scales should compliment the blade shape.

I'm posting this because the blade was so badly abused and I know I'll forget to post anything like "before" pictures once I'm really into this one. Also because I wanted to get some ideas before I go off into creative land in my head and wind up making a half dozen sets of scales before I'm happy with one. Finally I'm less likely to call something "good enough" if you guys are looking over my shoulder. OK here we go - here's the before pictures...

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And here's the blade after losing it's scales and some more time at 400 grit greaseless. The reverse side isn't too bad (I may be able to live with that pitting) but the "face" side still has tons of pits and I can still make out the hone marks as well as a bit of that big bevel. Back to the wheels and more 400.

One question that pops up in my head is if I should completely grind out the bevel and hone marks or leave it close to where it is at this point. Still want to disappear some more pits so maybe the blade will take care of it anyway.

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I would try to get all hone marks away, make a new nice rounded side up to the back.
A DMT 600 shim slightly bended in my hand is my go to tool for that.

Lemur I haven't used a DMT shim before, is it used essentially like sandpaper? I've just finished up with the 400 and will post something shortly but I like the shim idea if it bends enough to erase hone marks along the spine.

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Originally Posted by AirColorado

Lemur I haven't used a DMT shim before, is it used essentially like sandpaper? I've just finished up with the 400 and will post something shortly but I like the shim idea if it bends enough to erase hone marks along the spine.

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I use them like this; http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...rp-sheets.html

Thanks - guess I'll need to get some, I can come up with a few things I can use them for. Hope my Amazon Prime is still active...

Forgot to mention earlier, this one is 5/8 at the heel and goes up to just over 6/8 at the toe - probably why I like its shape.

Thought I was done with 400 greaseless but after looking at these pictures I'm thinking I need one more session before going to 600. Here's both sides of the blade. You can see the back side is basically good, just one pit left on the blade and one behind it. I'd hate to remove more metal to get the last of it - but maybe I'm wrong.

The face side is much better too, but, there are 2 pits on the blade I may not be able to take looking at. One near the bevel that's pretty small and another near the toe that seems to have a little more metal around it that's "depressed looking" in the right light.


The face is much better now - you can see the pit near the bevel area about an inch before the toe
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Reverse side now has one dimple on the blade and one in front of the pivot hole - it's just a dark area in the photo
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Back to the face, the pit near the toe in the right light looks "depressed" somehow
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Turn the blade slightly and the depressed area disappears and you see only the pit near the bevel area
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So the question is do I stay at 400 and get what I can of those remaining pits or move on to 600 and start cleaning up the scratch marks? I'm thinking another 15 minutes at 400 is necessary but I may be too much of a perfectionist.

Went back into the shop this morning and back to this blade. Decided to give it a bit more time on 400 and then go to 600. Once it looked like all the scratches from 400 were gone I did about 30 minutes hand sanding with 800 and 1,000 wet/dry paper. Then back to the buffers and hit it well with black, white, stainless (green), and rouge (red). Wiped it down and it looked good. Then after working on a few other projects came into to snap some pics.

My eyes must be going! It looked smooth and ready to go in the shop, but after looking at the pictures it's clear I need to go all the way back to 800 for a bit. It shines but there are way too many scratches to be anywhere near ready to go. Okay, back to the grind... Have some business to attend tomorrow so it'll be Thursday before I'll make any more progress on this one. Hopefully this is done then and I can start on scales.

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Inga is looking hot !!

Unless I maul her she should be a real looker! Didn't do anything to it today because I had to actually cross my property line and go do some stuff. Tomorrow she has another date with the wheels and some hand sanding. Then I have to find (or make) her scales to mate with.

I think the blade face looks fine... is it the picture or is the dahlgren etch getting burned?

I would really like to see a pic of your workshop set-up :D

Greasless buffing compounds are something new to me,
and I'm seriously thinking of getting a few more buffing machines
to help the restoration process after hand-sanding.

Any advice / observations would be most welcome !!

Bongo.

Finally got to this one for a few hours. Went back to 600 grit on the wheels and gave it a good going over a few times. Once it looked like the scratches from 400 were gone, I went to hand sanding since I don't have any greaseless above 600 grit - does anyone know of 800 greaseless? Hand sanded dry at 800 until the marks from 600 were gone as well (no reason for dry sanding other than it's a bit chilly in the shop so I wanted to keep my hands dry). Then 1K, 2K, and 3K - all dry sanding. I started to use micro mesh but after the first pad (3200 I think) it just didn't look like it was of much help. Went back to the wheels, started with black (emery), white (diamond), green (stainless), and then red (rouge). Wiped it down well with a clean cloth between the colors and decided it looked good.

After I finished all that I remembered the scales I'd been working on that I test fitted and put Inga into them again. Still a good fit! So here we are - Inga may be ready to go for scales but she still needs the bevel set and honing.

Take a look please and let me know if it appears this is good to go. Unlike last attempt, the photos don't show much in the way of glaringly obvious (or deep) scratches remaining. Some small amount still exist, but it takes some turning to catch the light "just so" before you can see them - and they're just shallow scratches. The only question I still have now is do I leave it shiny or take this down some to a satin finish. This is pinned up temporarily using micro fasteners until I decide to leave the blade as is or drop it back down to a stain finish.

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TwistedOak that's just the photo and maybe a bit of rouge in the letters. I keep my fingers on the blade while buff in and grinding so I feel any heat long before any damage can happen to the blade. Just finished a second go at it and I think the gunk that was in the etching is out of it now. I'm finding that greaseless doesn't get into etching but once I go to the colors, sometimes black collects in depressions and the red rouge definitely gets into everything until it's wiped out. Looking that this last set of pics I think some rouge might still be in the lettering though.

Bongo it's dark now but I'll try to remember to get some pics tomorrow. Gonna be embarrassing because it's a complete mess. I really need to reorganize it but haven't had a chance so there's stuff everywhere. It's certainly not as spacious or well organized as Glen's though!

Okay Bongo, here's my shop. Pretty messy right now. On the table opposite the scrollsaw are my buffers (in another photo). There's a pic showing my wet/dry papers. Got tired of searching through piles of paper so I made up a little holder where grits are segregated. That's just for bits I've used once. The full unused sheets are in a file box under the bench.

In the lower right drawer of the tool cabinet are a few hundred blades. They're all in those plastic holders sorted by type. Seems there is an inordinate number of Geaves and W&Bs in there that I need to give some attention to.

You may be able to see two buffers but one has a saw blocking it normally. I have to move the saw to get to the second one. I really have to organize.

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Mike, that looks very primitive compared to my hi-tech workshop !!
Note my ultra-super cushion cover, and my super-duper carpet and the
state of the art work bench :roflmao

Seriously though, that's a great workshop and I can only dream of having
a place like that to work in....

Now, some more info on greaseless compounds that you work with, please !!

Bongo.

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Thanks for the pics Bongo. You know, that cushion cover will be the envy of many here! :-) But, I can picture how one might sit/kneel to access that buffer - you may want to find a way to put it up on something higher - or wear a cup while buffing! Otherwise what the hell - if it works it's good!

This setup of mine is okay but far from ideal. Certainly not on par with Maximillian or Glen's. For a few years my work area for blades was on a single table in my basement, but it got unmanageable at some point. Once my wife ventured into the area she made noise about moving it all into the garage or building an unattached shop. Being basically lazy I chose the garage - of course she wouldn't give up her Volvo's half of the garage so I'm squeezed into what you see. It works but is cramped. Maybe this spring I'll get a concrete pad poured and build a proper shop. We'll see.

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Originally Posted by bongo

...Now, some more info on greaseless compounds that you work with, please !!

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Are you sure? I have to warn you that you'll absolutely trash that room! I mean greaseless compound skid marks on the ceiling, walls, and carpet. And they will be dark and thick and the consistency of hard plastic! Even with a box surrounding the buffer that stuff still manages to get out. I usually apply the stuff with the garage door partly open and use a cardboard setup to catch most of it, but I still managed to get skid marks up on the partly opened garage door. If you don't mind, let me know and I'll send you some links - but I want pictures! I mean good detailed photos of the damage!
:rock: