Pierre Fritisse Veritable “Pour Barbe Dure”: For Tough Beards P. Fritisse was a razor maker from the Thiers region of France in the mid 1920’s through WWII. This story actually starts with the leopardwood blanks. I wanted to use them with a razor, but I don’t think the look would go well with a colored resin, and it has a very straight grain. Now the razor: purchased during my vintage French razor accumulation phase... okay, maybe that never ended. Purchased long enough ago where I only have this auction thumbnail as a Before pic. Scales kept it from closing, so removed them and put the blade away. When I saw the leopardwood, I thought this blade shape might be the answer... so tried to recreate the shape from that picture. This started my longest project to date- on and off for about 2 months. I just wasn’t seeing the final razor, and the scale shape just didn’t look right. Be back shortly with how it turned out. Tom
Tried a different finish than my usual super glue- Birchwood Casey’s Tru-Oil. Started this so long ago, I can’t remember exactly what grit I sanded the blanks to before I applied the first coat. I think it was 1000 grit. What I do remember is that I gave each application 24 hours to dry and then sanded with 0000 steel wool. Not knowing just how far to go, I did about 7-8 applications. When I mocked it up I figured why I didn’t like it... just too wide. So pulled the dremel back out and reshaped. Then more applications. Here is the final shape: But I really like how it sits in the scales. I also had some fun with the wedge- shape and material. This is that synthetic turquoise. You can see I screwed up the drilling of the wedge pin. It’s somewhat low on the backside, but really low on this side... whoops. I almost threw them out. It did mess up the fitment, but the beauty of wood is you can adjust all that after pinning. Out came the dremel again The wood is very dense and the Tru-Oil looked to absorb nicely, so no need to reapply any finish other than Renaissance Wax. I’m pretty happy with the post modification wedge end. One final glamour shot. Enjoy your projects. Tom
