8/8 Alien razor in kirinite lava flow scales, glow in the dark wedge

I made this alien design razor which was inspired by a couple of designs I saw for making modifications to one of my existing designs. With an alien design, I figured the scales would need to be a bit special as well, so I picked black lava flow kirinite for the scales, and used glow in the dark material for making the spacer wedge. I feel that I could have done a bit more with the scale design, but it is easy to overdo these kinds of things, so I decided to keep it simple. It's the first time I worked with kirinite so I had a learning curve.

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Looks good Bruno! We need a night shot of the glow in the dark wedge.....

Great looking scales. Real nice craftsmanship.

Nice! Ever noticed how your maker's stamp has an alien-markings kind of look?

Cheers.

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Originally Posted by Pi3

Nice! Ever noticed how your maker's stamp has an alien-markings kind of look?

Cheers.

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I've been looking into etching, because it would make things easier in terms of freedom to remove metal after heat treatment. But somehow, the way it looks when I've chiseled it in by hand before heat treatment appeals to me. Before HT, the chiseled mark looks rough and very vague. After heat treatment, it almost jumps out of the blade, and it is really clear and distinct, as if the blade has come to life.

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Originally Posted by Bruno

I've been looking into etching, because it would make things easier in terms of freedom to remove metal after heat treatment. But somehow, the way it looks when I've chiseled it in by hand before heat treatment appeals to me. Before HT, the chiseled mark looks rough and very vague. After heat treatment, it almost jumps out of the blade, and it is really clear and distinct, as if the blade has come to life.

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Personally, I hate etchings. I prefer a clean blade (no decorations) and love the look of a stamped mark.

Cheers.

Great looking razor there Bruno. Scales are simple but still look great with the razor. Hell of a job sir.

I like the Alien very much. Excellent workmanship.

Looking good Bruno, I think I may have to try ,to build a seven day set of "Bruno,s". Tc

The waterbucket that is placed right below the contact area of my belt sander is now glowing in the dark with a glowing crust on the water :)

Nice looking razor there Bruno. You've got a really nice finish on the blade :)

Oh and I love that little anvil!

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Originally Posted by mikew

Oh and I love that little anvil!

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It's my peening anvil. It's cast iron so no good for any real work but it's perfect for peening razors. And for taking pictures of course :)

I like the shape of this razor a lot.

I really like the way your makers mark looks, it is distinctive and old school looking.

Charlie

Thanks charlie. Means a lot, coming from you.

I feel that I am finally starting to not suck at making blades. I still make mistakes, but I can usually make it work.
The more razors I make, the more I learn that not just anything goes. The features and properties of a razor are like little objects hanging together with bits of string. If you pull on this bit over here, the other bit over there has to move a little in relation to the 3d bit on the other side. Making notches and divots and pointy bits is easy. Putting them in the right spot is the hard part.

Anything with a sharp edge will shave, but having everything in the right place will make the whole a lot better. And I've also found that if you do all the steps, from forging to honing, you learn better how decisions in one part of the process affect the results of the next steps in the process.

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Originally Posted by Bruno

Thanks charlie. Means a lot, coming from you.

I feel that I am finally starting to not suck at making blades. I still make mistakes, but I can usually make it work.
The more razors I make, the more I learn that not just anything goes. The features and properties of a razor are like little objects hanging together with bits of string. If you pull on this bit over here, the other bit over there has to move a little in relation to the 3d bit on the other side. Making notches and divots and pointy bits is easy. Putting them in the right spot is the hard part.

Anything with a sharp edge will shave, but having everything in the right place will make the whole a lot better. And I've also found that if you do all the steps, from forging to honing, you learn better how decisions in one part of the process affect the results of the next steps in the process.

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It is the same for me, it is a continual learning process. If we as makers are not learning and refining our craft, we are either dead or really arrogant. I have those ah-haa moments in the shop on a somewhat regular basis. Some new insights come through trail and error and thought, some from happy mistakes.

Charlie

Beautiful blade, I'm a fan of the kirinite too, I've used it for knives easy to work and gives a unique finish/look. Well done

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Originally Posted by wynndow

Beautiful blade, I'm a fan of the kirinite too, I've used it for knives easy to work and gives a unique finish/look. Well done

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Kirinite is great stuff. It's my new go to material. I used to use acrylic from woodpenpro. However, I discovered that that stuff really smells. Badly. As soon as you dril, sand, saw or otherwise touch it, the acrylic gives off solvent fumes so badly that after working it in the basement, I could smell it strongly up in the attic. Aside from the fact that it was hard to get the smell out of the house, that just can't be healthy. Kirinite otoh gives off no smell at all. It sands smooth easily, and takes a very deep shine on the buffer.

Pretty darn cool Bruno

Nice looking piece of equipment there! I too like the look of the maker's mark.

Very nice combination of bits there Bruno.
I have some Kirinite I have never used. It's soft and supple on hot days like vinyl. So soft and supple I could bend it into shapes. Reminds me of PVC. Cool looking stuff though. I got the camo thinking it was a silvery color from their pics. It's brown camo but still cool looking.
I started playing with RSO's so I am watching you guys and listening very close. I have put them down for the time being as I am trying to get caught up on other projects I started first. Now that I think about it, forging in the desert sun might make me wait till next winter or I will have to work at night.
Anyway enough of my blah blah blah . That is one cool razor :<0)

Bruno, great looking razor. The scales look really good, a perfect match withe the blade profile.

Stu

The more I look at this razor the more I want one identical to this .

scales ? what scales ? I was too mesmerized by that incredible design of that blade to even notice it had scales ..lol... very very nice !!