Gottlieb Hammesfahr "Pyramide"

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Location
West Yorkshire
Well folks, I've just spent a maddening couple of hours trying to persuade Photobucket to behave: let's see if it's worked.

Here we have a 5/8 full hollow blade of very high quality which came to me in slightly grubby condition, but not too bad really. The blade etch, which is just about visible in the first photo, had to go in the polishing process, unfortunately, and the original scales were distinctly unappealing.

Pyramidebefore1600-1.jpg


Pyramidebefore2600-1.jpg


My customer wanted something modern and bright, and after a few emails had gone back and forth he settled on the sparkly acrylic scale material, giving me carte blanche to do my worst with regard to the shape. For a while now I've been wanting to do a single pin design with a central ridge - something I wouldn't want to do in wood - and this is the result. The slim, elongated shape just evolved as I went along, and I think it looks like some sort of exotic seed pod.

Pyramide1600.jpg


Pyramide2600.jpg


Pyramide3600.jpg


Pyramide4600.jpg


Pyramide5600.jpg


Pyramide6600.jpg


The razor handles well, though the unusually long projection at the tang end feels a little odd at first: it's just an aesthetic touch. Honing was a breeze for once (despite having to breadknife out a slight frown), and this blade is an absolutely top notch shaver, very sensitive and delicate.

This is the first of two refurbs in sparkle acrylic; the second one (a Cador Suprême Diamant) will be making its debut here shortly, and there are a few more conventional ones in the pipeline.

Finally, I'm offering a modest prize to anyone who can accurately identify the text in this picture:

Pyramide7600.jpg
 
I'll let you all know when it's in my hands how it shaves, from what Andy told me it's brilliant :D ("the customer" is me, for those that didn't know)

This is like waiting for xmas, only not sure if it will get here before...

Andy has been a great sport on this one, I handed him some blades, and gave him "carte blanche", with the only guideline being "Something different"
It's something I like doing, it gives those with artistic talent a possibility to express themselves, and 99% of the time they surprise you.
And in this case, boy did he surprise me, this was way better than I imagined :D

He showed me some of the materials, gave some ideas, I picked this colour, and another one (which Andy might post soon on here!).
I've told him to take his time, I was in no rush. (you can't rush creativity)

Anyways, I'll let you guys know when I can play with it.

Cheers guys, nice to know I'm not the only one that likes it!

Max
 
Thank you to everyone for your kind comments. It's a little surprising that no one came out with "Good god, man, what were you thinking"? - I really thought that those scales would divide opinion.

And so on to that prize. Well, that was fun, as Humphrey Lyttleton used to say. I'm proud of the spirit displayed by those who cheated, then owned up to it - good show chaps! - but I think we do have a bona fide winner. If Mr Hermit cares to apply to me by PM with his address, I'll send it on directly. The answer for anyone who didn't Google it was "The Greek Interpreter" from "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes", by Arthur Conan Doyle. Next time it won't be nearly as easy!
 
I did do a few sketches this time, literally on the back of an envelope. Take away my set square, and I can't draw at all! - but the sketches did confirm that there was some mileage in the design, and scope for variation. The pics work, I think, because I uploaded a resized set specially for TSR: if you're passing SR or SRP the threads there are nearly identical, but the photos are automatically resized by PhotoBucket and therefore a bit bigger. The originals were 4000 pixels wide before cropping. Just to give you all a laugh, and to scotch the idea that I have any artistic ability whatsoever, here's that envelope:
 

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