8/8 hammer finish Japanese style razor, western grind

[Bruno]

This time I wanted to 'forge to finish' a Japanese style razor like I once saw Charlie make. Western grind of course. Forging to finish is a challenge because not only do you have to 'play dough' to precise measurements (you can't grind away excess material later), while you're doing it you can't excatly hold it in your hand to see how well it fits. Because of this, the handle turned out to be a bit thicker (and heavier) than I had expected. On the plus side, it fits my hands very well. Near the edge, there is a thumb stud which is hidden inside the resting black, and which makes it fit the hand very naturally.

The only grinding that was done on this razor are the blade faces obviously. The edge is very thin. As it is shown here, it is shaveready and still the bevels are near invisible. The nice thing about this is that honing was literlly a job of a couple of minutes from setting the bevel to being shave ready.

As an aside, hammer finish is something you have to apply at the end. Actualhammer finish after shaping is rather flat, on account of the hammer and the anvil being flat. The finish that is shown here was done by using a ball peen hammer for the final shaping and adjusting.