Thread: Broken dubl duck :(

So I got back from the antique store today with a nice rusty dubl duck special no. 1 hot to get restoring. I'd been surfing the forums for a few weeks and read the hand sanding wiki so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Well after less than 20 minutes of hand sanding with 3M 100 grit Alum. Ox. the blade broke of from the spine.

Is there an explanation besides my monkey fisting? Please say it was just a lost cause.

Don't worry man, a rusted blade could have been rusted down to the core and weakened the steel so much that it was fragile. I doubt if the steel was in good shape could you have pressure snapped it off.

Best of luck
D

If I were to assume (such a nasty word), I would bet that it was a full hollow (pictures sure help). I would first think that after 20 minutes your hands were getting tired and you may have not noticed the amount of pressure you were putting on the blade. I've gotten frustrated/impatient at how slow material was coming off and fortunately caught myself before I did what you did.

For a more accurate answer, you need to describe how you were holding the blade stationary while sanding. Was it in a jig, laying flat, were you using a wooden block to sand with...see, need a bit more information.

At least you weren't at the finishing stages of polishing on a buffing wheel, have the buffer to grab the blade (didn't break then) & yank it out of your hands, pick it up (unbroken) & butterfinger it/drop it (unbroken) and step on it (broken).

I was holding the blade in my hand and sanding it with the other. I don't think it was a full hollow. I guess I was applying a lot of pressure. I thought that wasn't an issue though and that the steel was very strong, etc.

Any dubl duck special no. 1 I've seen is a full hollow. Too bad about the broken blade. On those full hollows I would stay away from heavily rusted specimens. They are already mighty thin.

My guess is that it was rusted through. We've all sanded a lot longer than 20 min. If you said you sanded for 8 hours maybe you could have sanded through.

Don't sweat it. It's the failures in life that make the successes so sweet.

Keep in mind that any full hollow can be snapped by just side pressure applied from the thumb... Really !!!!

If you are sanding from only one side you always stand a chance of snapping a blade...The other side of the blade has to be supported as you can see in the workshop welcome sticky there are several ideas in there for making blade rests/holders...

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...wers-here.html

You could also sand with the blade pinched between you thumb and fingers, much safer for the blade, much, much, more dangerous to yer fingers...

+1 to what Glen said. In the SRP classifieds here there is a magnetic blade jig/holder that Rayman is selling. The aluminum acts as a heat sink when using the dremel and the magnets hold the blade firmly in place. It could also be used for hand sanding I guess. I've got one but haven't gotten around to doing any cleaning of blades with it.

Sorry about your Dubl Duck.

Let me learn from your mistake / misfortune. Make the best of it, no blood loss and hopefully you can rescale something else with what you have left over.

Originally Posted by straightrobert

So I got back from the antique store today with a nice rusty dubl duck special no. 1 hot to get restoring. I'd been surfing the forums for a few weeks and read the hand sanding wiki so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Well after less than 20 minutes of hand sanding with 3M 100 grit Alum. Ox. the blade broke of from the spine.

Is there an explanation besides my monkey fisting? Please say it was just a lost cause.

It is possible you were sanding an already thin and fragile full hollow blade with 100 grit paper.
But even if the blade were not so tarnished, 100 grit will remove quite a bit of material quickly and make it much thinner and thus weaker… wouldn’t take much force one way or the other to snap.


Razor steel is hard but somewhat brittle, and a full hollow blade is already very thin from factory, so you should avoid as much as possible such a low grit abrasive, try 600 or 1000 grit.

finally, sometimes we have to compromise and live with a few pits rather than risk removing too much material and weakening the blade.