lets have a new razor thread.

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Got a new one.

My favorite most used razor in my collection is a Cape 1372 For Barber's Use Swedish Steel from Japan. Basically the best of all possible worlds. Swedish steel, Japanese heat treat, German hollow grind, Tanifuji design. The one I have is "well loved". Found a NOS one for a rather reasonable price. Makes a rather lovely pair in my opinion.

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Very nice!

I recently acquired a pair of Ribbons, which I think are Swedish steel too. Seems bloody hard and not the easiest in the world to hone, dunno if you've got any tips...?

They sure are pretty though. :)


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Very nice!

I recently acquired a pair of Ribbons, which I think are Swedish steel too. Seems bloody hard and not the easiest in the world to hone, dunno if you've got any tips...?

They sure are pretty though. :)


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Saito is right up there with Tanifuji and Iwasaki in terms of being a Japanese razor deity. I don't know what kind of steel it is for sure but certainly got a nice hard Japanese heat treat on it. The best advice I can give is make sure your bevel is very well set. And then the higher grits won't really be an issue. And be careful for the first couple of uses after sharpening. Very hollow ground very hard steel is lovely but lively. Not the best razor to choose if you're hungover or sick or tired. Best save it for when you're on your A game.
 
Got a new one.

My favorite most used razor in my collection is a Cape 1372 For Barber's Use Swedish Steel from Japan. Basically the best of all possible worlds. Swedish steel, Japanese heat treat, German hollow grind, Tanifuji design. The one I have is "well loved". Found a NOS one for a rather reasonable price. Makes a rather lovely pair in my opinion.

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What would you consider a reasonable price for a Cape Swedish Steel in very good condition? You’ve got my interest peaked.
 
Picked up a vintage Boker at the local antique mall to give it a whirl. I've been wetshaving with vintage DE and SE razors for years, but never tried a straight. With all this new sharpenning gear I thought what the heck. I think I got the sharpening down but the technique has a learning curve.
 

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CAPE 1372 came in yesterday. Wasn’t in as great condition as I thought it was, a bit of a frown. Let’s see if I can sort it out. Definitely seems like it has potential.

Edit: @stringer any tips? Or anyone else really.

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I would start honing it on a very flat 1k-2k synthetic stone. Try to set a bevel and see what you are dealing with. A 1372 is a pretty massive razor brand new. That thing has been used for decades by a professional barber. Probably gave it a frown by stropping a lot on a loaded strop.
 
New shaving video with the Filarmonica.




They are good aren't they! When I got mine I immediately understood the hype.

Unfortunately it's not a semi-mythical unicorn like your flea market find, Though it is slightly unusual in that it's a 13-B, which was a model for the Japanese market, and has a 1/4 hollow grind which I rather like, rather than the full hollows that Filis normally are.

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Looks great. What did you use to restore the faces?
Thanks man. The original full hollow was done on a 2.5" wheel, so I wrapped some sandpaper around my 2.5" wheel and hand sanded through the grits. The section below the belly I just laid flat on the edge of some jnats to polish up. Actually turning on the grinder would have overheated it too easily, check out how thin it is.

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Alright razor gurus. Is it worth sharpening or just a wale hanger? It's a monster Wade and Butcher Sheffield. Blade says "the celebrated hollow ground razor for barber's use" It's over an inch wide (would still go over 7/8 with the chip removed) it's hollow ground but still very heavy. I paid $30 at a local antique shop.
 

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Alright razor gurus. Is it worth sharpening or just a wale hanger? It's a monster Wade and Butcher Sheffield. Blade says "the celebrated hollow ground razor for barber's use" It's over an inch wide (would still go over 7/8 with the chip removed) it's hollow ground but still very heavy. I paid $30 at a local antique shop.
Very nice. Not super old as far as big WB choppers go. But very desirable pre 1900 piece. That chip near the heel is far enough back that you can change the profile without wasting a bunch of steel everywhere else. I think you could probably triple your money selling it on eBay as is. But it would definitely go into my fixer pile if I found it. Whether or not I would ever get to fixing it is another question.
 
Very nice. Not super old as far as big WB choppers go. But very desirable pre 1900 piece. That chip near the heel is far enough back that you can change the profile without wasting a bunch of steel everywhere else. I think you could probably triple your money selling it on eBay as is. But it would definitely go into my fixer pile if I found it. Whether or not I would ever get to fixing it is another question.
Thanks for the info. Reprofiling might be beyond my skill level, but I'm tempted. Is there anywhere to get a tutorial?
 
Thanks for the info. Reprofiling might be beyond my skill level, but I'm tempted. Is there anywhere to get a tutorial?
I suggest putting it aside for the day when you are comfortable with the operation. But the basic idea is something like this:

Take a quarter, and place it at the heel of the razor so that one part is at the very heel, and another part hits the edge in front of the big divot. If a quarter won't do that, get a bigger coin that will. Draw a sharpie line following the arc that the coin makes. Take off steel up to the sharpie point, maybe a coarser file followed by a finer file, or a Dremel. Now you have no more divot, a reasonably orderly contour at the heel, and room to sharpen the remaining minimally-damaged flat part into a proper razor, without removing much steel at the edge.
 
Alright razor gurus. Is it worth sharpening or just a wale hanger? It's a monster Wade and Butcher Sheffield. Blade says "the celebrated hollow ground razor for barber's use" It's over an inch wide (would still go over 7/8 with the chip removed) it's hollow ground but still very heavy. I paid $30 at a local antique shop.


Very cool! Definitely a good price you paid despite the condition, should be able to get it back to working order I imagine. :)

As others have said - if you want to get rid of the chip you'd go for something like this, with a slight curvature to it, while trying to minimise the amount of the cutting edge lost.

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If you want to use it then the other option is just to leave the chip there and hone it like it is. The positioning of it will actually make the razor easier to hone, because you won't be honing on the 'stabilizer', and it won't affect it in use. And if you want to sell it at some point in the future then the buyer can choose what they want to do...
 
Here's where I'm at. Ive sort of split the difference in reprofiling and slimming the original profile. I've done this on an Atoma 140. I'm not all the way through the chip but I've got clean steel behind the chip on both sides. I'm going to give it my best shot at cleaning with some flitz and maybe micromesh polishing pads and then finish up on Shapton Pro stones: 320, 1K, 2K, 5K, 11K.

I'm going to do something to that crack in the scale. It's not loose and I feel like I should save the scales if possible. Either some epoxy or black superglue.
 

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Here's where I'm at. Ive sort of split the difference in reprofiling and slimming the original profile. I've done this on an Atoma 140. I'm not all the way through the chip but I've got clean steel behind the chip on both sides. I'm going to give it my best shot at cleaning with some flitz and maybe micromesh polishing pads and then finish up on Shapton Pro stones: 320, 1K, 2K, 5K, 11K.

I'm going to do something to that crack in the scale. It's not loose and I feel like I should save the scales if possible. Either some epoxy or black superglue.


Well if you haven't done this kind of thing before then it certainly isn't showing. You've got exactly the right idea, and how to go about it. Nice work! :)

If you want to get through the chip completely - take more off the heel from here, curving upwards. Which will give the whole thing quite a nice 'smiley' profile by the look of it tbh.

If you're not getting rid of it completely - perhaps blunt that section before use, because it'll be a bit dangerous in terms of cutting you.
 
Here's what I ended up with. That chip isn't completely gone, I thought the 1k and up would take more metal, but it's very close. This is up through 12k and unstropped. I'll probably blunt that leading edge a bit, and I haven't touched the scales. Fun project.
 

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Picked up an old John Wragg and Son chunky 1/4 hollow fairly cheap on ebay this week. Was in pretty decent condition already, but I was getting a bit bored of blobby, rounded end, sausage-shape-Sheffields, so I decided to grind a Spanish Point style notch onto it. First time I'd tried that, but went rather well. Honed it today on a SP1K then just dilucot from there, and got a perfect, silent HHT5 straight of the bat.

So all in all I'm feeling quite pleased with myself atm. :)

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whats your fave??

for me the cotis dont work somehow. even though they should. its just too dull somehow.
i need one step above this. (12k shapton) or 2 steps above (gok 20k).

BUT i also just splash some water on my face and go to work. ymmv.
You probably have already, but I’d suggest trying the Coticules with glycerine. I usually go to them afte a Koma for 40-60 passes depending on how fast/big your stone is. Don’t get the coti wet, just put some drops of glycerine and razor weight laps… Certainly worth a try if you haven’t…
 
Very nice!

I recently acquired a pair of Ribbons, which I think are Swedish steel too. Seems bloody hard and not the easiest in the world to hone, dunno if you've got any tips...?

They sure are pretty though. :)


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I have a Ribnon that has “JPN” on the tang and that thing is the hardest hardest steel to hone ever and I have some razors…
 
An absolutely lovely tamahagane kamisori picked up at an extremely kind price from @refcast here:

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/tamahagane-kamisori.65996/

I've shaved with it a few times already, but also in the last few days polished out some of the rough edges on the tang, and wrapped it in a fetching blue:

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But did I remember to tape the edge before trying to wrap the handle, so that if I slipped I wouldn't slice the top part of my thumb off and splatter the walls with blood...?

DID I F**K!

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