Thread: Lemons into lemonade... Sorta

So one of the first times I was buffing a razor I set it on the table to reapply compound. Dumb idea! It was shaken to the floor by the buffer and hit a hand plane I was also restoring. The plane survived but the razor was trash. So I cut the tang off and now use as a spacer when making scales instead of a plane piece of 1/8 stock. Just an idea for anyone with a ruined razor and does restoration work. Here is a pic of it in action.

nice way of turning tragedy into something positive! haha, so you have to dance around the hand planes youre restoring to get to your buffer too? I just picked up an infill plane to restore and have been able to keep it off the bench while restoring razors for about a week now. now stacked around the drill press is another story, for some reason the planes like to hang out there.
I like the idea of using an actual tang, just make sure you don't end up with a collection of those! i tend to take several blades to the buffer to consolidate time and after learning the lesson you did i have since made sure to place the blades not at hand up on a shelf nearby to avoid the "dance til you drop" routine they seem all too eager to perform, haha.

Ha sounds exactly like my routine. I don't pull out the buffer unless I have 3 or more blades to do. It's too much of a pain to always switch out wheels. I have a small work place so most of the tools are a modular set up. It is a chore to shift thing around everything.
I just love old planes like antique Stanleys. They just don't make them like they used to. If they are quality made; you're gonna be spending over 100 dollars. You can find gold whether its razors or planes at the flea market/ junk store. You just have to put in the work, but there is nothing like taking that rosewood in hand and making a paper thin cut.

amen to that! for me using straights and old school hand tools go hand in hand. it was actually my love of restoring and using antique planes that led me into straights (found my first straight in a box of tools I bought for restoring). it was a quick transition from honing my plane irons and setting them up to take shavings as thin as 1/2 a thousandth of an inch(!) to getting my first razor truly shave ready. having said that, I thought I knew sharp when I was honing my edge tools but when I first tried taking my first honed razor to my face I tell you what, I found out very quick what was sharp and what wasn't!
down the road now and over 1000 restored straights im still learning tricks like yours. i like keeping it simple and your use of the tang here seems as simple as can be, now i just need to break a couple more razors to account for the different tang thicknesses!!!!!!

I have several of these "spacers"

Originally Posted by entropy1049

I have several of these "spacers"

I know ive got at least 2 kickin around, one was a decent wade & butcher, the other was an absolutely gorgeous Red Imp 132, immaculate......right before unpinning the blade to clean the tang

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...tip-bench.html


You need 3 sizes to cover the range of the razors..

1/8 - 3/16 - 1/4

I started with the wooden ones like in that old thread, but now have three made from G10 scraps that are near indestructible..

They work extremely well, especially for fitting the wedge correctly and for pinning the wedge correctly and straight...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...tip-bench.html


You need 3 sizes to cover the range of the razors..

1/8 - 3/16 - 1/4

I started with the wooden ones like in that old thread, but now have three made from G10 scraps that are near indestructible..

They work extremely well, especially fro fitting the wedge correctly and for pinning the wedge correctly and straight...

Do you use them Glen? One would think that using the actual Blade would be the best way JMO

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Do you use them Glen? One would think that using the actual Blade would be the best way JMO

Yes, I use them everyday on every scale build, they are just "Safer" in many ways, and as long as you are using the right size, then the angles are correct..

They are not used for fitting the wedge to point relationship (Space) of course, that you have to measure using the actual razor, but for everything else I like them..

Just ran into this issue. My wedge is too thin on these scales in the pic. It's a stubby razor so I will glue a shim to the wedge then make a mock stubby tang for next time.