Thread: Herder blank

Hey srp members I have made the the most irrational buy in my life and I need your help out advise. I recently well a few hours ago bought this herder blank without noticing the word black. When I spotted the blank all that I saw was a $9 buy it now price. My questions are: do blanks that have the pin holes have been heart treated? How do I know that the blanks have been heart treated? How much will it cost to have one of this get tempered and ground? By the way this is the blank it looks to be anywhere from a 6/8-8/8.

That's not a blank. That's a finished blade. You can tell by the fact that the blade is ground properly, and the fact that it has tang stamps. In other words, no heat treatment is needed. All you have to do is sand and polish.

When blade are heat treated, they are much thicker at the edge than a finished razor, because otherwise there would be a big risk of warping the blade and decarburizing the edge. After hea treatment, the blade is then ground to the point where the edge is thin. In other words, your blade is an actual razor and not a blank.

The listing seems to be in error, in that the razor pictured looks to be a razor that has been hardened, heat treated, and hollow ground. It later suffered neglect and rust.

You did fine in buying a good deal of work. I would just lightly clean it, give it some new scales, and hone it to perfection.

When you get it in hand update us with some good photos.

Jonathan

Slow on the draw this morning.

Jonathan

You guys made my day. Now I have two steps of wood one it's ebony and the other is American holly what would you guys recommend? Can't believe this is going to be my cheapest razor!

My recommendation is to start thoroughly surfing the Custom Builts and Restorations gallery. I'm not sure that anybody will tell you how you should do your scales, and if they do, you're probably going to get a different opinion from each person. When it comes to scale building, alot of the design is goverened by your own sense of aesthetics. So, surf around, look at a BUNCH of pictures of restored blades. Read about what the folks did, how they did it, and the mistakes they made, and then make your own choice about the scale design. If you want, come back with either a drawing or the rough-cut scales and folks will be more than happy to give input; but with just a blade, get some ideas in your head and let the creative juices flow! In my opinion, there's no one way to scale a blade.

I do recommend a couple of resources (aside from the site wiki):

Discussion about scale thickness: http://straightrazorpalace.com/custo...thickness.html

Vintage Scale shapes: http://straightrazorpalace.com/custo...pdf-today.html

And since you're looking at using wood

Great way to finish/stabilize wood scales: http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...ints-tips.html

Lastly, from the wiki, here's a great video series of restoring/rescaling a blade, start to finish.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwi...h_Video_Series

Cheers!
-- Jim

Have a look here.

Someone bought these (a grab-bag of several blades) and some were heat treated, some not and still soft. In fact the listing says that the actual treatment of the individual blades may vary due to the abrupt end of the factory during the war.

As far as I know, only the actual thickness of the blade and the appearance of the stabilisers will tell you whether they have been hardened - stamping marks and pivot holes is (usually - some holes are drilled afterwards, or so I have been told) done prior to final heat treatment. It is hard to tell the thickness of the blade in a photo without an end-on image.

Regards,
Neil

Actually, the sound they make is another tell.

If you hang a blank on a thread (or keep the end of the tang between your fingers very lightly) and tap it with a ball peen hammer in the sweet spot (the place where it would more or less balance ), listen to the sound it makes. A hardened blank has a certain crystalline structure and will produce a relatively clean high pitch chime. A soft blank of the same dimensions will have a different internal structure, and will produce a chime that is not clean, and significantly lower.

You will also tell n how it sands and takes a polish/how the sanding feels and looks. It might be a bit difficult without some experience, but you should figure it out.

That is a Herder razor blank from Smokey Mountain Knife Works. Here is the link....
F. Herder™ Razor Blade Blank Grabbag

I purchased a bunch of these a few years ago. They are not finished ground. One person who tried to grind one of these is Geezer. He got the job done very nicely but I doubt that he will ever do it again, it was that difficult. If I recall correctly Geezer sent the blank to Mike Blue for re-heat treating and tempering. It did not go all that well. The steel is very hard. It was difficult to grind and a bear to hone.
Maybe Geezer & Mike Blue will post here.