Custom SatinEdge Project

Hey dudes, sorry I didn't get to this sooner, been on nights this week. But figured I should start a new thread to document my process of bringing a satinedge from dull and sad to a piece that I will soon love and cherish. Disclaimer I am not Glen, Max, or any of the other great resto-pros, nor do I pretend to be.

So with that out of the way here are some pictures of the blade when it first arrived. I only paid $35 dollars for it so I thought I got a good deal. However when I first got it, I noticed a rainbow, iridescence effect on the blade. I had read somewhere on this forum a while ago that it could mean the temper is toast. However after posting pictures, members with more experience told me that it was a common effect from off gassing.
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I started right in on the blade wet sanding with 1000 grit and working up to 2500 before going to polishing compounds. The rainbow effect is gone, and all but a few deep scratches and some light pitting remain on the blade. I was impressed by the grind so didn't want to sand to much and risk screwing it up so figured I could live with the the imperfections.
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Taking the bolsters off was pretty straight forward, a 20 min bath in acetone softened the scales up enough to carefully remove them. I did the majority of the polishing while they were still on the old scales, and then once removed I ever so carefully cleaned up the insides with a q-tip and some patience.
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I purchased some PVB plastic to make the scales with and am kinda at the point where I need to start thinking about the end game. I have about a 1/32 or so that needs to come off near the pivot hole at the top, don't know if the picture shows it. Again no where near close to the final product but getting there
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I am going to gold leaf the stamps on the tang, and also going to laminate a very thin sheet of abalone veneer on the insides of the scales. I need to do some experimenting with small fragments of abalone and scrap PVB to make sure that I get the effect I want. Atm I am waiting for the oil based size and abalone sheets to to arrive, so expect many, many more pictures documenting the ups and downs of this project. This idea was purely conceptual so not %100 sure how this is gonna turn out. I am confident the gold leafing is gonna look great, just not sure what it's gonna take to get the abalone veneer to look how I want.

Best Regards,
-Laramie-

Alright! Looks like a great project thread.
Good luck and take your time! I've wasted good materials by not spending more time looking at all the approaches and being more cautious.

Nice job. Keep at it and go slow. Lots of fun aint it.

It is fun Jerry, really glad I've been getting back into the hobby side of things. I tried to find some of my old post of my past work but I can't seem to find them. But doesn't matter these are gonna blow them outta the water. I just started shaping last night, and will probably have some more free time after dinner to work on them tonight. There's this voice in the back of my head saying "They're to thin". So that's made me stop and really think about do I want to shape these just to find out that indeed they are to thin. I need room to sand and polish and right now they are like .1mm bigger than the old ones. I am adding the Abalone on the inside, and that will add another .2mm, plus the glue, so I really think I'm good. Just can't help but proceed with caution from past projects.

Best Regards,
-Laramie-

Any pics of the scales so far?

Not as far along as some others would be, haven't really had as much time as I would like to work on it. I got wednesday off this week so hopefully I'll be able to work on it more then. Seems like something always comes up as soon as I sit down.
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So not really blasting through this project like some could, but got the abalone a lot sooner than I was expecting so that kinda motivated me to put other things off to do this. Also received the right size to gold leaf the stamps with the left over 24k leaf I have.
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I also cut out a small corner of the sheet to do a little test to make sure it was going to reflect through the plastic like I wanted. I'm not a photographer so it's a little blurry, but you get the idea.
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Came out great, I used regular old clear epoxy, same epoxy I use for brush knots actually. It's flexible when fully dry so will flex with the scales, and I think it came out really good. I got pretty sloppy and got a glob of epoxy on the top but you can still get the idea of what it would like shining through the scales. I also sanded with 220 to make sure the epoxy had something to bite into. When I do the scales I'm going to just glue them right to the sheet then cut them out after it dries. Put a piece of wax paper over, then place some weight on it and be done with it. I think this is going to come out really good. If for some reason I don't think the bolsters are going to come out clean I am going to abandoned them and keep these scales looking tight and clean. Still confident that I can do it, just saying lol, doing a little C.Y.A. here.

-Laramie-

I think it’s Glens line of rush a restore, ruin a razor.
I have tried not to hurry any of my restores. I often juggle several and some are on the todo board for a very long time. If I had to bust my butt to get them done it just would not be a relaxing hobby.

Looks very promising! Too bad you were not happy with the bolsters. Maybe you will find some later on a busted blade you can salvage. They looked pretty good in the picture.

Dont worry about how fast it gets done. I've got the same blades sitting in a box for years. Most probably wont get fixed until I send them off or get a garage/shop to work in. So I certainly can't judge anyone for taking it slow. Most of my mistakes were because I got in a rush and then thought, "I knew better than that, this wouldn't have happened had I taken more time."

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Originally Posted by JP5

Looks very promising! Too bad you were not happy with the bolsters. Maybe you will find some later on a busted blade you can salvage. They looked pretty good in the picture.

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I haven't given up on them at all, I'm just saying if towards the end I don't think they're going to come out super clean I'm going to go a different direction. I don't want to ruin the abalone with a half ass bolster transfer, all's I'm saying. I've read through multiple threads and the technique is definitely within my abilities, on paper at least. So pretty sure I got this, the abalone was just kinda like BAM!!! Made me forget for a second about the end game lol.

Can't wait to see the finished product. It's already looking like it'll be a beauty.

Really starting to get the hang of this gilding thing, thinking I'm going to try and water gild a whole tang on a razor and see out it turns out. Water gilding is a process which gives you a super mirror like shine to the gold even around the sharp and curved edges. Might give it a try on a old Friodur 72 1/2 I have. It would also be a lot more durable than the electroplating process. Certainly got the wheels turning.
Well here's a teaser of the tang, looks really clean if you ask me!
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Got some great news here at home, moving into a new place in a few weeks. Not a house yet, but it's a much bigger, two bedroom. Maybe might set up a little hobby room!!!!!! This is bad news for the projects I had going on because they are showing my apartment later today. All the blanks of scale material, tools, everything needs to be cleaned up and put away for the showing. I am so freaking excited about this new place you have no idea. I have put all but two razors away, and only have the lama in the bathroom. Probably won't be able to sit back down to work on anything until probably maybe the end of May. Stay Tuned!!

-Laramie-

Good luck on the move. It can be hard on the body so dont over do it. The tang look great.

I have been in the same house for over 20 years. It would bacaxmonumental task for me to move. I am glad you are excited. I will stay tuned. The gold looks very nice. I will have to research that.

Awesome! Edges look really clean and uniform.

Lucky for me I'm still in my 20's least for a few more for months, :aargh:. So physically I'm sure I'll be fine. Plus I'm literally going like right next door, different building, newer, nicer, bigger. Type of place I could settle down for while, and keep saving for a house. I love my neighborhood, just my apartment was good when I was 26, now I want some space to spread out a bit.

I hear you. I hit 30 on 5/2 myself.

That gold looks really good - nice and clean.

Good luck with the new place. I'm in a similar place as RezDog; been in the same place for 20 years or so. Been trying to get rid of some accumulated clutter. Moving right now might have a significant contribution to my early demise:).

I couldn't move. My body would not go for it. You're a young man so it should be simple. Us old guys with decades of stuff make it damn near impossible. My house has doubled in value but I ain't selling! Maybe when its worth a million I could aford to pay someone to move me. :y

Ok, so I know I said that I wouldn't be able to finish this till after I moved, but one thing led to another, and next thing ya know I'm pinning up a finished razor. This project definitely didn't come without it's hiccups but overall I'm calling it a success. I hope you guys like it as much as I do, now time for the pictures.

This is pretty much tightening up the 2nd dimension as Jerry(10pups) would call it.
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And buttoning up the 3rd dimension.
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I decided to focus on one side at a time until I got the bolsters on then start evening everything out. I think it worked out well.

This is after gluing the bolsters down, and getting ready for finish sanding.
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After I sanded to 400 I seperrated the scales and sanded the insides flat to with 220. They were already pretty flat, so basically cleaned up the glue spots. I then glued them to the veneer sheets with epoxy.
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Everything was going pretty well up to this point, however I just had to have them feel embossed, or like they were part of the scales. So my idea was to fill all the low spots within the bolsters with superglue and sand it to blend everything in. Well at the start things were going great, then very quickly I mean very quickly, they weren't. The line above SatinEdge like peeled up when I was sanding everything and like ripped it off. So I ended up having to sand into the bolster a little deeper then I planned to blend it all in. All things considered I think it was a pretty good save, and will use the knowledge I gained from these when I go forth with my other two ducks.

This is after rough polishing to see where I was at.
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And a close up of the damage
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Decided that I was happy enough and decided to finish them up sanded up to 2500, then polished on my jerry rigged car buffing setup thing. Works a treat for what I use it for, and I use mothers as a medium, and finish with a pad I have impregnated with .25 diamond spray.

All shiny and pinned up.
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I plan on buying another SatinEdge just for the scales so I can take the Bolsters off and redo these scales to perfect them. I also have a Goldedge, and a Wonderedge that I plan on making like a matching set of sorts. The blade on the Goldedge is fine, however the blade on the Wonderedge has a really bad frown, and not quite sure its worth saving. However one of these days I'll get to those blades. So this is where I am at with it, the bevel is 90% set just working on the very tip of the toe. She is honing up really well and the way it's popping hair at the 1K level I'm sure I'm in for a treat in the morning. Thanks for looking guys, let me know what think, the good, and the bad.

-Laramie-

What an amazing restore. Those scales look like they were made by the manufacturer, but WAY nicer.

I had hoped that the clear and abalone were going to compliment each other, and it appears that you have pulled that together well. The clear seems to give much more depth to the scales that plain abalone. The bolsters look fine in the pictures. There are a few guys that have managed to pull these off very well and it seems we can add your name to the list also. The gold leaf turned out well too.

Beautiful razor. Your combining a clear top over a base reminds me of the lapidary technique use for an opal doublet. Clear optical grade quartz over a very thin piece of high fire opal.

Please post some more info about the water gilding. Intriguing !

Thank you for the kind words man, really look up to you guys. It came out so good I contacted a source about clear colored acrylic and has gotten the gears turning on other scales. I can get the abalone in a multitude of colors and varieties,so am interested to see how this would play with a colored scale. This will probably be my last bit of work till fall, so won't be till then that I get around to playing with that stuff. But still hella fun to play with when the weather sucks.

-Laramie-

Turned-out very nice! :tu

Very cool!

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Originally Posted by randydance062449

Please post some more info about the water gilding. Intriguing !

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You basically use an oil based size and spray water over it, then lay the gold over and spray more water. when the water dries it leaves a perfect mirror finish. However, these techniques are common for making signs on glass, there's a video on youtube somewhere that demonstrates the idea. Leafing a whole tang is kinda a pipe dream and honestly by the time I was done it would have been easier to just have it electroplated it, and from my research is something that could totally be done at the hobby level.

-Laramie-

Those came out nice. Looks like you got a near perfect fit for those bolsters. You next couple should be a breeze in comparison, can’t wait to see the 3 of them when they’re done.

That looks sooo good! Love the colors and patterns in the abalone and the gold just sets it off even more. You really nailed it. :tu