Engineering advice required - again

UKRob

UKRob

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I'm considering whether Feather SE blades as used in the Feather Straights and Cobra etc., would benefit from a few laps on a high grit hone followed by a leather strop, just to take the harshness off the edge. What I need is a holder about 15cm long that will hold a blade firmly enough in place during honing/stropping.

The dimension of the holder should provide an angle of about 18 to 20 degrees when the blade bevel and holder are flat on the hone i.e. the holder acts as a spine.

Any thoughts from you engineers?
 
antdad's is probably the easiest and simplest solution. The only other thing I could think of would be one of those bulldog clip things used for holding paperwork together, but it would be at completely the wrong angle. Failing that, making something to suit?
 
Daz may be right. I've tried a str8 feather in a number of injectables and in a few Feather hair handles and they just don't shave. Tried the other way to-injectables in the feather handle. That doesn't work either.
Seems that Angle may be everything!!
 
Terrytoolpath said:
are these blade a different size to normal de blades ?

Terry
Click to expand...

Yes. they're longer and only about 1.2cm wide. They are not to be confused with other Feather blades designed for an SE razor such as Valet - those ones are the same size as a Gem blade.

I'll try experimenting with a pencil with a groove cut in to establish what size and depth of groove produces the correct angle for honing.

Tony, your idea of a shavette will probably result in a much shallower angle than 20 degrees therefore the edge would not be touching the hone.
 
Ok, I'd say Daz is on the right lines but it would require accurate positioning of the blade
I'm thinking something along the lines of a door hinge with blade sandwiched between the 2 flat parts of the hinge and a couple of small wheels one at either end of the hinge pin, of a diameter to achieve the desired hone angle, the wheels would roll along on the hone

Terry
 
UKRob said:
Tony, your idea of a shavette will probably result in a much shallower angle than 20 degrees therefore the edge would not be touching the hone.
Click to expand...


You could certainly strop with it and that may be enough but it may also provide the basis for something that can hold a blade securely.
If you think it's really worth it you can always modify it to then give you the angle you want.
 
antdad said:
UKRob said:
Tony, your idea of a shavette will probably result in a much shallower angle than 20 degrees therefore the edge would not be touching the hone.
Click to expand...


You could certainly strop with it and that may be enough but it may also provide the basis for something that can hold a blade securely.
If you think it's really worth it you can always modify it to then give you the angle you want.
Click to expand...

Just had an idea. The Coticule.be site has a calculator that if you enter spine width and blade depth, tells you how many pieces of tape are required to achieve the optimum honing angle. If I use my Feather razor with blade in place, measure the spine width and spine to edge width, I can tape it up and use the razor as you would an ordinary straight for honing and stropping.

I'll report back on how (and if) it works - and of course whether it makes any noticeable difference to the comfort of a new blade.
 
You know the angle and one distance i.e blade edge to spine of razor, some simple trig and you should know how much material you need to add.

It might work if enough blade is exposed and or the razor edge doesn't get in the way.
 
Greetings Rob

As you know I have virtually zero knowledge of stropping/honing but it occurs to me that those Feather blades will no doubt have some sort of coating on them and if you take a hone to them I suspect even an exceedingly fine one you will possibly (or even probably) remove that coating. Perhaps a leather strop might not?

I am thinking aloud really but if pulling them through a cork takes a little of the 'sting' out of them, think how soft a cork is.

I understand these feather blades are at the cutting edge of blade technology (sorry I could not resist that) I suspect you might have to strop them on something very gentle!

Please feel free to say I am talking out of my arse!

Regards
Dick.
 
I just tried honing using the Feather razor - unfortunately there is not enough blade exposure to enable the bevel to meet the hone when the spine is also touching, so it's back to the drawing board with that. The problem is going to be finding something that will both clamp the blade and leave enough of it showing to get a reasonable angle. As these blades are only just over 1cm wide, that's the challenge.

Anyway I decided to see what stropping would do so I started with an old blade and marked the bevel with a sharpie so I could monitor if the edge was making good contact all the way along. The first surprise was just how ragged it looked under my loupe - it's been used half a dozen times but may be a month old. I started off using a rougher side of a small travel strop - it's almost suede and not something I ever use so I was not too worried about scratches. That went OK and cleaned the edge so I went on to a finer sealskin strop which is only just over 1" wide. It made a noticeable difference to the appearance under the loupe so I then took a new blade (Feather Pro) and stropped that on the sealskin ready for tomorrow's Cobra shave.

More to come tomorrow.
 
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