Hi everybody. Ive only flat ground my blades so far, but i want to start hollow grinding some straight razors. During my forging process i forge all bevels in and clean them with a flatter before i start rough grinding. My question is, do i need to forge in an edge bevel for hollow grinding or do i need to just forge he knife shape without bevels?

I hollow grind bars that are flat and have parellel sides. i leave enough of an edge ,,about a dimes thickness to help wredouce warpage in heat treat. I have forged one straight razor. I ground the hollows after heat treat.

If youi wish to see how I hollow grind i did a bp,,0235 and it is in the blade making lesson on here....Not likely to retype all of in this wee box.

Have you visited straightrazorplace.com?  Not that you won't get your question answered on IFI, but as straight razors are all they do there's a wealth of information.

I hollow grind bars that are flat and have parellel sides. i leave enough of an edge ,,about a dimes thickness to help wredouce warpage in heat treat. I have forged one straight razor. I ground the hollows after heat treat.
If youi wish to see how I hollow grind i did a bp,,0235 and it is in the blade making lesson on here....Not likely to retype all of in this wee box.

So you reccomend stock removal for small hollow ground blades?

Are you doing it freehand or with a jig?

Are you doing it freehand or with a jig?

I was going to do it freehand untill i figured out a jig for it.

It's an interesting question.  I wonder if fullering in the hollows would help or hinder.  I suspect that if you're freehand grinding, the fullered hollow would track easier.  It would reduce the amount of stock removed via grinding.  That being said, the uniform thickness of a flat blank would tend to heat treat more evenly.

 

I've seen videos of smiths fullering grooves in sword blanks that were later ground for finishing.  I don't know if that translates as well to something as small and thin as a straight razor.

 

One jig I saw a while back was nothing more than a stepped metal dowel clamped to the tool rest.  The dowel was placed perpendicular to the wheel's movement.  The back of the blade was set in the step and the edge was rotated towards the contact wheel till it started cutting.  Moving the blade laterally cut the hollow.  Since the dowel only made contact at a single point, it allowed a smiling razor to be ground by simply keeping the dowel's contact point perpendicular to the curved spine. Of course the single central pin allowed both sides of the blade to be ground symmetrically without moving the jig.

I think i will start with flat stock and try that round rod jig! Thanks for the help

Freehanding I have always found a "starter fuller" to make it easier.  Doesn't have to be much to leave room for "correction"