Thread: What are you working on?

And Mike-I love those black and white ebony scales. I've been drooling over the big selection of it on Cook Woods, and will be ordering some soon. The Ironwood Man on Instagram is about to get some of my pay too!

I'm thinking a wax finish since this stuff doesn't really need any color. I may wash the gun stock wax off of it and try some of that beeswax and orange oil but for now I'm just building up coats of that gun stock wax. It too is a carnauba wax base. I have polyurethaned some and I don't really like that very much. This wood has a shine of its own and it seems wrong to put that polyurethane over it for some reason.

Okay so I did the initial pinning on the Christiensen. I say initial because often I will find something Im dissatisfied with and take it back apart. But so far I'm fairly satisfied.


Pins are nicely snug.

And it centers well.

After about 10 coats of gun stock wax sitting in the sun it seemed to quit soaking it in and buffed to a matte finish.
Now for a trip to the stones and a test shave.

That sounds like a good plan but here at 36'f even with the sun I don't think it would work as good as the 86 there!

True... technically it was 88° here today by my thermometer.

Been cleaning up a couple of brushes. A little oxyclean for disinfect and some hot water soaks to fix the brisltes. The no-name red handle boar came out pretty nice. I used it this morning and it made a really nice lather, a little stiffer and more skritch than my semogue, but definitely a brush I'll use again.



The nylon core of the black ever-ready doesn't want to cooperate. I've hot water soaked it half a dozen times and worked it with a comb, but the nylon just doesn't want to uncurl. The smaller made-rite badger is looking flat worn out.



I'm thinking of trying some steam on the black one to try and straighten out the nylon. If that doesn't work I'll pick up a couple of inexpensive knots and try my hand at replacing them.

Replacing the knots isnt that hard, give it a go

Test shave with the Christiensen did not disappoint. Wow! That thing sings like a songbird. A well made tool of good material, well maintained and in its prime is a thing of beauty.

Few more coats of paint and my razor storage will be completed

So I pulled the Winchester from the Packwood/Henry Sears lot out of the drawer and decided to clean it up some.
Before:

After:

Before:

After:

I can even see there's a number on the tail now: it's No. 8529

I usually don't sand hollow ground razors but, as you can see, it had a LOT of hone wear on the spine and on the edge so I corrected, all that and polished it up into a presentable razor. Oh, and I repaired that heel.that was a destroyed mess. I'm interested in this one. I know at one point their razors were worth having. Unlike their modern pocket knives which are imported junk.