Thread: What are you working on?

Tearing apart a JR Torrey.
Plenty of rust to go around, and the usual light tang stamp by Torrey.

Honestly I have no idea why anyone makes such faint tang stamps. 50 years later there is probably very few marks that survived, which means a large percentage of unmarked straights are probably from known makers with weak stamps. If I put my heart into making a quality product I would want that known for as long as possible.

Originally Posted by RezDog

Honestly I have no idea why anyone makes such faint tang stamps. 50 years later there is probably very few marks that survived, which means a large percentage of unmarked straights are probably from known makers with weak stamps. If I put my heart into making a quality product I would want that known for as long as possible.

I see your point but can think of many other reasons.

The best one is that they probably didn't expect to live 50 years.

https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy/

Tore down.
Rust cut off with SE razor blade.
Rubbed with 000 steel wool and Goo Gone.

I'm quite impressed at this point, and very happy with the spine wear.
The pitting looks bad, but they are very small, and not very deep. A little emery on a wheel should remove a bit more of it, but I'm not going crazy with it. Just wanna clean it up a bit more.

All done with the blade, and gave the scales a scrubbing.
I'll give um a polish after pinning it back together .

Originally Posted by RezDog

Honestly I have no idea why anyone makes such faint tang stamps. 50 years later there is probably very few marks that survived, which means a large percentage of unmarked straights are probably from known makers with weak stamps. If I put my heart into making a quality product I would want that known for as long as possible.

Weak stamping may have also been caused by a die at the end of its life. Similar to the vinyl record world, the first stamped record has the least amount of wear on the die, has the least amount of transfer loss and highly coveted as a collector's item. Not so much that they didn't care, but they were probably just cutting costs. Another possibility is that the guy stamping it was half-heartedly stamping, but I lean more towards the worn option.

Weak tang stamps are one thing but what's worse is when someone who thinks they are restoring a straight razor buffs & polishes the crap out of it & rounds the edges on the letters or numbers & also any pitting in the blade looks abnormal from the excessive polishing. I hate it when I see these & the people who think they are restorers are ruining them! Some almost completely remove the tang stamps. I had some blades reground quite a while back & the ones with weak stamps I had him touch them very lightly if any at all.

I've had two Torreys and both had light tang stamps. One was the same model Outback is working on. I wonder if it's a just a trait of Torrey razors.

Originally Posted by Leatherstockiings

I've had two Torreys and both had light tang stamps. One was the same model Outback is working on. I wonder if it's a just a trait of Torrey razors.

You may have something there. I have some Torrey's that have a light tang stamp............

Most do..!!