Thread: The Butchered Blade

Originally Posted by MikeB52

Thanks Steve. Yes, I agree. Maybe a bit of polish up around the stamp, but on to scales!

Sadly the original hardware was also too rusty to save even though I was able to drill them off safely.
They just died on the buffing wheel..

Old steel collars. I have them, Mike. I can send some. Used with a bit of that bronze rod, look swell!
I always polish them a bit before unpinning. Problem always seem to be lots of peening, big hole to cover.

Originally Posted by engine46

I know the feeling. We just have to do the beat we can.

Originally Posted by MikeB52

Those tails have almost identical hook at the base of the tail. Cool, maybe not as misused as I feared. Thanks for posting them phrank.

Upon arrival at home tonight I was looking at my repair under daylight conditions and thought I could do better. I tried to get more heat up closer to the pivot hole without heating the tip. Those of you with gas welding experience, feel free to chuckle...
Impossible,,, the solder would re melt where already set, at the tip, before the area further up, with more mass, ever heated up. The entire solder job would then drip to the floor.
Ok, more ice, more focused heat, more mini solder steps instead,then quench, and repeat,,good enough, because I don't think I can do better with the tools on hand.
Attachment 246648
Really, the only way I'm thinking could fully encapsulate the tail would be a thimble sized ceramic crucible filled with silver solder and the blade dunked in tail first until the required heat was achieved for adhesion.
Don't think I will test the idea as its so rare to have one with the tail so far gone and yet the rest of the blade is in such fine shape.
As seen in the second pic, I really don't want to do much to this thing, I like the age of it as reflected in its colour.
Attachment 246649

Heck - it looks great, awesome, and the objective, the goal has been beautifully achieved in my opinion, that will look great scaled up, and will return once again to the fold of active shaving for another hundred or two hundred years....that is a stunning blade.

What do you have in mind for scales, imagine you're going some type of stellar horn or maybe that tusk?

That walrus tusk would be incredible on it indeed. Been at an impasse on that stuff waiting to get appropriate stabilizer. Something akin to water in viscosity is needed I believe and haven't found one yet.
Was actually thinking that remaining slice of red horn, if I can preserve the red this time by less top surface work would be really appropriate as well.
Might put it back on the bench for a bit and turn to the vacuum project and move the tusk along since Colin prolly wants results, one way or the other, lol.
He was nice enough to pre-absolve me if the splits and such prove to render it unscale worthy, but if it works, oh boy, can get a few sets of blanks out of it for sure.

That would be nice for sure.

I've been absent from this thread for a wee bit. My free time to do scales has dwindled down pretty far. However, I have been doing some honing and finished up a butchered blade this past weekend. This is more of a "It sure ain't purty and she's going to stay that way." Let's say it has character, a lot of character. Unfortunately, there are no before pics. It was covered in what I think was motor oil and still had some active rust on it. I cleaned it up and used some 2000 grit W&D to remove rust as well as soften the heavy handed scratch marks. It appears someone "attempted" to restore this blade with a dremel. Honing was the biggest challenge, as there was a corner honed/sanded into the bevel. It felt like I had to do honing gymnastics on par with a balance beam routine at the olympics! Progressed through 1-2-5-8-12 in the Naniwa series (I am enamored by that 2k) and will use it to test some coti's. Took on a sweeeet edge w/ 2 layers of tape. Not really sure why, nice small bevel though... Without further ado! My Butchered Blade! I hope the scratches come through in pics... (Probably the first time anyone has said that!)

Nice job. The more tape you put on there, the thinner the bevel will be but you don't want to put a lot of tape on one if you don't have to. In your case it sounds like it needed it.

Originally Posted by engine46

Nice job. The more tape you put on there, the thinner the bevel will be but you don't want to put a lot of tape on one if you don't have to. In your case it sounds like it needed it.

It was mostly a preventative measure. The bevels were bungled by the grinder and I wanted some cushion to compensate. At least that was my thought process, whether it was truly needed...

I'm more surprised in that I haven't gotten a bevel quite that small with most of my razors. For some of them, I would need like 6 layers of tape! Plus, the smallest ones are of a newer vintage.

P.S. Not 100% sure on the material, but I plan on keeping the bug bites. Scales as chewed up as the blade! hah!

I understand. I have some razors that have bug bites in 'em that are staying because I like the scales plus I like keeping original if I can on some. I have some reground blades that will get custom made scales or they will be new scales made like the originals.

And for my sense of continuity. The last blade I worked on in this thread, truly a butchered tail is now this.

bumping my own old thread, but I knew I put the work on that Wade and Butcher tail somewhere.
Cheers.