Thread: The PI razor aka the hanging edge razor

This was definitely an oddball project.
It came up during a discussion about the silliness of HHT levels, and someone mentioned that for the sake of standardization, he'd need a hanging edge razor, with the edge hanging suspended below the spine with 2 legs, like the symbol for PI. We discussed the idea for a bit, I drew up a couple of sketches, and we settled on this design.

The tang and spine are equally wide, to enhance the perception that the spine / tang was a single part, with a separate edge hanging below it. The thumbstub was chosen because without normal shoulders, your thumb might slide dangerously close to the heel. The thumbstud and the tail notch are rotationally symmetrical as well.



We chose for black MOP scales, that would keep the scales a bit subdued and prevent them from drawing attention away from the design feature of this razor. The spacer is also significantly thicker than normal. the reason is that normally, the blade hollows touch the scales when they close. But because a part of the hollow was missing, it would bump on top of the scales.

This was made worse by the fact that the grind is very heavy. Early on we decided that a wedge was the way to go because that is the only way to guarantee that the loose bits of edge at the toe and the heel would be strong enough not to wobble or break. Grinding this thing was difficult because I literally felt the ends vibrating in my hands. As a result, the bevels are thicker than I would normally let them be. This too was a tradeoff we decided to make in order to keep as much steel in the edge as possible.