Thread: Looking for advice/opinions

I picked up this blade at a flea market ether other day, very rusted, very cheap. I grabbed it because I thought it would be good to have a practice blade to mess around with some.

No markings on the tang, but it has tested xx on the spine, so I suspect it might be an older Case blade. Once I unpinned it and took the scales off, I was able to get a good bit of the rust off without too awful much damage remaining. I began to think it might be viable, except for a couple of things. There was a lot of very weakened metal at the toe, and some of the little pitting went down to the edge.




So what I did was take it to work and carefully cut and grind and shape the toe where it's all strong metal again. Then, just because this is sort of a test blade for me, I cut a thumb notch and jimps into it. I kind of like the way it looks now.



I've managed to sand much of the edge pitting off now too, but not all. I suspect I can get the edge ok now however.

So is this worth continuing with? I never let the blade get the slightest bit hot, and I'm starting to think it might work out. Have I committed a travesty against a great old blade? I'm just looking for a little feedback and guidance here.

You can put a rough edge on it and see how it looks. As long as you dont get pitting in your bevel, or in an insignificant place in the bevel (like really close to the heel), you're good to go.

You obviously know that getting a blade hot will destroy it. Your workmanship looks just fine, besides it's your blade and you can do whatever you want to with it.

My only concern about restoring a blade that was rusted up a bit is the edge, because if the edge is "swiss cheese", the blade is worthless to a straight shaver. You will need to set the bevel and look at it under magnification to ensure there is solid steel along the edge...if there is, restore away!

Originally Posted by shooter74743

You obviously know that getting a blade hot will destroy it. Your workmanship looks just fine, besides it's your blade and you can do whatever you want to with it.

My only concern about restoring a blade that was rusted up a bit is the edge, because if the edge is "swiss cheese", the blade is worthless to a straight shaver. You will need to set the bevel and look at it under magnification to ensure there is solid steel along the edge...if there is, restore away!

Well I'm new to all this, so I don't do any honing yet, I've sent the few I've had done, off to be honed. I'm thinking maybe I'll keep sanding it down then check the edge after I've passed a few more grits. I'd really like for this to work out.