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E.M. Dickinson 'Invicta'

B

bernie01

Member
Saw this 3/4 advertised locally, made a a low ball bid and won. Intend to use it for honing and restoration practice as I have little invested in it.
It has a smile at the heel end, measures 19.3mm at the toe and mid but 19.1 nearer to the heel. Any advice on how to proceed is welcome!
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Gave it a polish with '0000' steel wool and autosol, then 1500 wet and dry. Plenty of 'wab-sabi' still there... :)
t8XdtlM.jpg
 
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Well, that razor seems to have plenty of life left in it. It doesn't seem to have any active rust, but I might be wrong.

The way I generally go about my restorations involves a rotary device. If I see any rust, be it active or inactive, I go to town on it with a steel brush wheel, using different pressures as needed. After that I either use scotch brite wheels (different grits) or I sand the blade using wet/dry. Once I am happy, I use different components on buffing wheels, depending on the finish I want to give the blade.

I don't thing you need to do too many honing acrobatics for such a slight smile. X passes should do the trick, in my opinion, but it's true that it's not easy to give advice without having the razor in hand.
 
bernie01 said:
It has a smile at the heel end, measures 19.3mm at the toe and mid but 19.1 nearer to the heel. Any advice on how to proceed is welcome!
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As long as it takes a good edge I would not worry too much for personal use, do you shave with that last cm of the heel? Unless you are wanting to sell it will eventually even out with natural honing cycles.
 
Holiday said:
Aren't a number of vintage straights made intentionally with a wry smile? I don't think they are all bread knifed
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That is correct. The smile would go from slight to quite pronounced, on some old Sheffield razors. Saito-san took it to the extreme with his SK 1.

The more pronounced the smile, the more your x-strokes must become rolling x's.

When I had my custom Drew Dick made, I asked him not to give it too big a smile, because I wasn't used to them. A while after that I got another big Dick and that one was a much happier one. Turns out it is vey nice to use, it gets much better in all the nooks and crannies than a normal blade.
 
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