Thread: What are you working on?

Originally Posted by RezDog

@BeJay
It is a tough call on trying to repair how that blade closes those scales are likely a tad on the brittle side and it would be a shame for anything to happen to happen to them. A though might be to wedge the blade over just a tad, because that is likely all it need, give the scales a little soak in some light mineral oil and see if a few day of that helps them work better. How old do you think that frameback is?

Hard to say for sure. I would guess it's from the first quarter of the 19th century, but it's hard to say with these Frenchies. Still doing my homework on the maker

Originally Posted by Martin103

Sweet looking Frameback, what's the brand?

Thanks. It's marked "LEBRETON AENCERS" with a key.

Originally Posted by BeJay

Thanks. It's marked "LEBRETON AENCERS" with a key.

Could it be LEBRETON A ANGERS ?

Originally Posted by Martin103

Could it be LEBRETON A ANGERS ?

It could be a G. What do you think?

There are definitely cutlers with the last name LeBreton the one that I was thinking was in Angers not Encers .

Originally Posted by MW76

So i was snagging my SOTD/Test Shave pic and i figured id take a close up and ask..

Is this too much grind on the stabilizer?
If it's too much you will see a larger bevel at the toe. You said you had a "time" honing it so I assumed the heel was slow in getting sharp.

The heel is sharp.. popping hairs (im about to test shave it so ill really know) but i definitely did grind that stabilizer when honing this blade.

I have a few other razors that look similar.

Is this a honing faux pas?

It's not a faux pas so much as an indicator of how worn the blade is.
IMHO a blade that is freshly made should have a healthy belly that allows for chip correction due to accidents without honing on stabilisers. Some razors are not made that way, even expensive customs which always leaves me scratching my head. Pic of a well made blade below.

Originally Posted by Martin103

There are definitely cutlers with the last name LeBreton the one that I was thinking was in Angers not Encers .

I have come across those while looking for this one. I'm not 100% sure that that's a C and not a G though. Hopefully I'll find that makers mark somewhere to confirm. The older French blades can be tough to find info for. I guess that's part of the fun though.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

It's not a faux pas so much as an indicator of how worn the blade is.
IMHO a blade that is freshly made should have a healthy belly that allows for chip correction due to accidents without honing on stabilisers. Some razors are not made that way, even expensive customs which always leaves me scratching my head. Pic of a well made blade below.

Ok, That makes total sense.

I've definitely been honing 'around' the stabilizer. Ill have to start paying more attention to that. I feel like i've even adjusted my honing strokes to keep the stabilizers off the hone, instead of grinding them out of the way a bit.

Lesson learned. Thanks for the heads up guys. For some reason i just wasn't visualizing the geometry till now. I did fix up the heel on that Duck a few weeks back.. but it still didn't click.

Before



After



I took the heel up, removing the line coming down from the tang, but never ground out the stabilizer at the belly. I should have evened up the front of that shoulder with the belly of the blade.

There's nothing wrong with modifying your strokes to keep the stabilizer off of the hones. That's the right way to do it as long as there's no heel hook. It is nice to modify it and not have to worry about it though.

Originally Posted by BeJay

There's nothing wrong with modifying your strokes to keep the stabilizer off of the hones. That's the right way to do it as long as there's no heel hook. It is nice to modify it and not have to worry about it though.

Yes but unfortunately, with a worn razor, it will inevitably lead to a heel hook.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Yes but unfortunately, with a worn razor, it will inevitably lead to a heel hook.

Yup, that is why you inevitably will learn how to reshape the heel/stabilizer when you realize what is happening. Took me a while for the coin to drop on that.

Bob