Hey folks, so I'm joining your little DIY club I guess. I got an awesome razor that needs some TLC and I figured I could share the process. There's a lot of stuff on my blog, but here's the gist. I got this: And I used some Japanese metal polish to turn it to this: and this: And then some sand paper to turn it to this: So now I need to figure out how to deal with the front. Should I go ahead and try to sand out all the spotting in the concave, and say goodbye to the etching, or leave the spotting and keep the etching? My wife recommends the former... I'm torn.
I love mirror shine blades. Especially vintage blades that have been brought to a mirror shine. That said, if it were mine, I would NOT get rid of the etching. Keep the stains. Learn from my mistakes - I tried sanding around the etching, and started with too course of a grit too close to the etching. Now I can't get rid of the sanding marks. I put it through a tumbler for quite a long time, and that helped considerably, but it's not perfect. My personal taste is to keep the vintage, vintage. If there aren't stains, great and do what you can to polish it up as much as possible. But don't get rid of the etching. That's history. EDIT: and if you ever want to get rid of that blade for whatever reason, PM me first please.
Another thought, Jim. After looking at the blade some more, it looks like you may be able to sand down the "bad" side of the frameback, and the area of the blade under the etching. View attachment 8819 But leave the middle etched portion untouched. That might give a neat look.
Looks good! Don't be torn: if you plan to keep it for yourself then leave the etching. If it bugs you for days on end that you didn't sand it off, then sand it off. Wait until you're sure you want to sand it off before you do and if you do then forget the etching was ever there If you're going to sell it, then sand it off as the market only sees the finished product That'll be $5 please
That's a nice razor Jim, and a good clean up job. I never bother going too far with the ones I keep for myself (which is all of them ). But that's just me. Another thing that might look alright is to cold blue the groove in the grind (mask the rest so the blueing is sharp), and mirror polish the rest. James.
Oooohhhh...That does sound nice. Hmmmm... I'll think about that. OK, for the time being I'll just work on the spine and blade edge area...and the tang and jimps, and and and....
Where'd you get your hands on that? I would love to find a frameback locally.... some day.... it is a beauty Jim, and I think no matter what you do with it you'll be a) happy, and b) wishing you did the opposite....
It's not technically a frameback, it's called a "double concave". I think. I got on the Bay, from a shop called "Tim's Old Stuff". He's got a couple of good razors--I was thinking about picking up an Eskilstuna frameback (a REAL frameback, with a removable blade) he had, but went with this one instead, on the advice of The Good Doctor Moss. I'm glad I did, it's a cool one.
Learn something new every day. I didn't realize that framebacks had removable blades. I was just going by this pic posted by PalmettoB in one of my threads from a while back, and thought anything with a thick spine was considered a frameback. Looking at this pic again, I guess it could be removable, but I a) wasn't told about that and b) didn't pick up on that in the picture.... Well, I like the double concave, too. I don't know how I'd like a removable blade.... But anything with a thick spine like that just goes way up in coolness factor for me... :happy088
Sorry Truckman, I meant that the original frameback was a special way of making razor to kind of reduce the skilled grinding labor--you make a flat blade, then wrap/slide a steel frame around the T-shaped upper edge to hold it to the razor, rather than grinding the full blade into a hollow or whatever (thanks to The Good Doctor for this info, BTW. Some good Frameback posts on SMF). I don't know that all framebacks had removable blades, but the one this guy was selling has a screw on the end holding the blade in place, so it clearly did. The style (apparently) eventually evolved into what you were thinking of, a flat blade with a thick spine, which is also called a frameback or a concave grind. I like them very much, as well. Very cool lines. This razor here I know nothing about, except that some of the experts on SRP called the grind a double concave, which is also what the seller called it. Also, the maker is apparently pretty darned rare--my google fu only turns up three different razors by this maker, and this is one of them. Another was sold on SRP a couple years ago (another very smooth-lined wedge, I'd love to get my hands on it) and another was turning up on a couple of Australian sites...
Blair, maybe it isnt removable in the way that you could just pull it out and change it, but removable in the way that the spine and the blade it self werent ground from one piece of steel. Maybe the spine was notched, the blade inserted, and than hammered closed so it appeared to be one piece? Thats at least what I got out of the above info on "true spines"
Yeah, I chose my words poorly with the "real frameback" thing. I don't know, in fact, that it was at all common for framebacks to have removable blades. I was just saying that the original frameback style was designed in such a way that, as JayKay said, the blade was actually two pieces, instead of just one piece of steel ground down; this particular example (it's still on the Bay, search for "Le Coultre frameback") had a blade held in by a screw, so I figured it was clearly a two-piece blade. Like I said, this design eventually developed into single-piece, ground blades that had a "frameback" shape (Flat/straight blade, with a thick spine, making a "T" shaped profile). These are also called framebacks. Apparently. (All of this is second hand knowledge, by the way, and I highly recommend you listen to other, wiser heads).
It does seem like there were made two major kinds of framebacks Observe: This frameback appears as though the razor was thinly made of one piece of steel and then a frame added to the spine (for support?) And this frameback is as the one you describe, where the blade is manufactured separately from the rest of the razor. Some of these blades will detach from the razor and some will not Jim that is a neat looking grind, and I guess it was not really rare, but is not as commonly seen for sure. Since there isn't an official name for it as far as I know, I'm going to call it a reverse concave grind (wait, wouldn't that be convex? hmm.. oh well) Here is one I picked up recently (my chance to show off in your thread, I hope you don't mind, hehe). The grind profile seems like the razor was just not fully hollowed out - as if the grinder took off for lunch and then forgot to finish what he (or she?) was doing. Maybe we should call it a "sloppy" grind I had to take the scales off to get to the heavy pitting
Nothing sloppy about that, mate! That's a dead sexy profile. Very nice, indeed...Wanna send it to me so I can "test the edge" for you? I'll get it back to you in my will! I wonder...is this supposed to be the "diamond edge" grind? My razor is also etched with "diamond edge", and the profile DOES have kind of a diamond shape to it. BTW, your first two pics aren't showing up for me... That makes me feel sad.
I think I know why *sigh* - ok here they are as attachments. I wondered the bit about the diamond edge too, and though I'm not sure what it refers to I have seen it etched into various other more traditional looking full hollow grinds. Maybe it refers to a spine shape, or maybe at some point it came to mean nothing at all? dunno. It's fun to guess though
Ah, I see what you mean. Yeah, all the ones I have are the kind with a flat, forged blade and then a frame added, most likely to provide a good angle for honing (as opposed to grinding down from a thicker spine to a thin edge).
