This is what I do

[SnailForge]

I forged this from O1 with the intention of making a razor with a big smile, no shoulders, and no visible boundaries between the different parts. I suggested ebony scales, which was ok with the buyer. But then he said 'you know what would be really cool? the symbol for Pi inlayed in coticule' (coticule is a belgian type of natural whetstone with a very fine grit, and popular for razors) ... Yeah sure. Why not? After all, it's not like that would present any difficulties whatsoever . However, it was a very interesting idea so I agreed for the fun of it.

I made the scales, gave them a mild CA coating to prevent splitting, glued on a template, and then painstakingly cut out the shape of the symbol with a thin chisel and an exacto knife. I put in a drop of CA, and then pressed in ground coticule dust. After letting it set for a while, I used the knife to very carefully scrape away the excess dust. Then a layer of hairspray to lightly fixate the dust, and more scraping. Then a couple of layers of CA, sanding, more layers, more sanding, and then many many many more times the same.

Doing the inlay work was more time consuming than forging and grinding combined. And that is not counting the multiple test inlays which I finished on scrap ebony before trying it for real on the thin scales. And during the actual inlay, I had to undo and redo some things a couple of times because it was not behaving quite like the test runs.

It was quite a huge time sink, but I am happy with how it turned out.

The spacer is bone. I thought about using coticule as well, but in solid stone it would almost certainly crack. And I don't have the equipment to make recon stone using epoxy and coticule dust.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dan C]

Wow, very impressive work!  What type of grind did you do?  I had someone asking me to make them a razor from an old file and I've been holding off until I could get more experience making small knives from the files.  Any differences in the heat treatment and how thin do you rough grind the blade before you HT?

[toolish]

that looks great, One of those has been on my too do list for a while.

Have you tried shaving with it?

[SnailForge]

Heat treatment is similar. You want 59 to 61 HRc.

 

Softer and edge retention will not be great. Harder and it will be very hard to hone to a decent edge.

You grind some before HT, but you leave at least 1 mm thickness at the edge. Preferably 2, because you really don't want it to warp. And thin also means a big risk of decarburization.

 

That grind is roughly 3/4 hollow. If you are going to make a razor, I will gladly help. A razor looks simple, but the geometry is rather tricky and subtle. I am administrator of a large straight razor forum, and we have quite an active workshop forum. Every so often we get knifemakers dropping in, and what usually happens is they come in and post stuff and show their razors. And then we start pointing out that this won't work or that's not right, and we offer assistance and inspect prototypes to point out the specific problems. At that point, most of them leave in a bad temper because they 'know' that a professional knifemaker doesn't need lessons from a bunch of amateurs. :) Well, most of us are amateur or semi pro, though I know a couple who make customs for a living.

 

Anyway, one of the key elements is the honing angle, which should be around 15 degrees, up to 17 degrees. No less, because the edge will be too thin, and the geometry will cause wide bevels which are again difficult to hone and look ugly. A second key element is that over the years, the spine will wear down ever so slightly. And at that point, the contact of the spine on the hone should still befree from the tang, meaning the tang doesn't touch the hone. otherwise, you will get uneven spine wear, wobbly hone contact and bad edges.

 

You hone on 1000 grit until the edge grips your thumbnail along the entire length of the edge. Then you progress to 4000 and 8000, followed by a finishing hone. At that point, you should be able to take a hair, tap it gently on the edge, and see the end falling off. That is how sharp it should be,

 

But as I said, send me a message and I will gladly give you as much information and help as you want on this subject.

[SnailForge]

that looks great, One of those has been on my too do list for a while.

Have you tried shaving with it?

 

This one not yet.

But I have been shaving with them for 20 years now, restoring antiques for 6 years, making new ones for 3 years, and forging new ones for a year and a half.

I am a straight razor enthusiast and admin of straightrazorplace

[toolish]

Ok thanks for the reply, sounds like your the straight razor man.

Might have to hunt down some O1 steel, was thinking of using ball bearing steel

[SnailForge]

52100? That's good steel too. You just have to be a lot more careful about grain growth.

 

In terms of ending up with a useable razor, it's a very good steel as well, but it is not commonly used. One reason is that it is harder to find the right thickness (although that could be solved with upsetting). Because of the required angle, the width - thickness ratio should be between 3/1 and 4/1. For a 7/8 wide razor, that means you start with 1/4 thick stock, but that is not commonly available in many places in 52100.

 

52100 is also significantly harder to grind after heat treating, so you end up making you own life miserable. And it's not like the added toughness adds value to the razorblade. It also makes it harder to hone. As I said, it is a fine steel, but overkill for the requirements and it causes more work.

 

O1 is the standard steel used by most razor smiths. Or O1 / L6 pattern welded.

[Don A]

Beautiful work.

 

I have several of my granddad's old Bokers (circa 1925), but have never used one. I'm still afraid I would filet myself.

 

Again, that is a very nice piece.

 

Don

[FIT BMX]

That is beautiful!

[rockstar.esq]

Very nice work.

[Unforgivun]

No experience making them... But I sure do enjoy using them!  That has a nice subtle smile to it....

 

8/8?

[AJAX]

Nice knife! I'm thinking about making my own, do you think you could explain the mechanics of it? ie- how the handle fits together, the shape that makes the blade "friction fit" any information would be awesome!

[SnailForge]

Sure.

 

First off, there is no friction fit with the scales (scales is the term for what you call handles) When you close the razor, the spine touches the scales, but they don't lock or grip in any way. The scales are also not entirely straight. they 'bulge' a bit to the outside. The reason for this is that tang at the pivot is narrower than the shoulders (where the actual blade part starts) so it has to 'wrap around' if you understand what I mean.

 

There are brass washers on the pivot pin, between the tang and the scales. this is to give it a way to open and close without touching the wood. The pin should be tight enough that the blade can remain in the 'open' position on its own.

 

The tang is tapered, and runs into the blade beyond the point where the cutting edge starts. this is important because as the razor is honed, trace amounts of metal are removed from the spine. If it was not thicker than the tang, it would develop a spot with uneven wear, and make the razor wobble while it was honed, eventually. I know this is a small amount, but over time it would add up. Maybe not the first decade or 2, but razors should last centuries. My oldest razors for weekly use are 200 years old, and still  in perfect condition.

 

If you want to start making razors, I suggest you buy a couple of old ones on ebay. They don't have to be good anymore, just good enough that you can take them apart and inspect the geometry. But old brands from sheffield or solingen. those places had the best in the world in the heyday of cutlery. stick to those 2 areas.

 

The bevels on the blade should be really narrow. You need to grind most of the way after heat treating, and end up with narrow bevels. 1 mm max. The bevels also need to be even, and identical on both sides. You hone with the spine on the stone. At 1000 grit until the edge grips your thumbnail along the  entire edge. then you progress to 4000 and 8000. After 8000, it should be sharp enough that you can take a single hair, tap it to the edge, and it should be cut in 2.