"Gold Dragon" Odin's Edge custom straight razor by Joe Edson

Attachment 216414

"Gold Dragon" Odin's Edge custom straight razor by Joe Edson

• Style: Odin's Edge
• Razor Steel: 01 tool steel
• Size: 13/16
• Cutting Edge: 2.8 inches
• Weight: 2.3 ounces
• Scale material: Musk ox horn with fossilized mammoth ivory wedge
• Grind: Full hollow

More photos: 13/16 Golddragon in Musk Ox Horn Custom Straight Razor

This is my first fully custom straight razor so, of course, it had to be special. I have always loved the amazing work that Joe Edson has done restoring and rescaling vintage straight razors for me (Joseph Rodgers Dutch Rattler for instance). Joe does beautiful work making new, custom straight razors and kitchen knives as well and has a certain blade style that he has perfected which he calls "Odin's Edge", based off the very popular C.V. Heljestrand Mk32.

I asked him what he could do to customize a razor for me, taking my username "goldragon" as inspiration. Joe came up with some great ideas including custom filework along the spine and tail of the razor to resemble dragon scales and also the gold plating of the blade. The custom filework along the spine does look like layered reptile scales but does not interfere with honing or stropping as I did want the razor to be functional and not just decorative. The tip of the tail is filed into a sort of devil's tip, very round. The entire blade except for the front and back blade faces has been plated in rose gold including all the way to the point, just like the highest quality Solingen razors such as the Puma Gold. The wedge pinning is a nickel pin in a brass washer stacked on a nickel washer to give a "golden iris eye" look.

The development of this razor was a long and arduous (for Joe) process with many new techniques he had to develop and perfect over time, most notably the gold plating. Joe was a true professional to work with, always sending me email updates detailing his steady progress with photos. I am already bouncing ideas off Joe for my next custom razor. Anyone thinking of acquiring a custom straight razor should strongly consider Mr. Edson, he is definitely my maker of choice!

Amazing work. He did a great job for you

A work of art, the horn scales are stunning. Looks almost too good to use..

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Originally Posted by Grazor

Looks almost too good to use..

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Haha, yeah but I did! It's a great shaver in my preferred size of 13/16 inch width. The photo at the top of the post was done by a professional who specializes in photographing custom knives. When I got the razor from him and first tried to shave with it the edge was pretty rough to be honest. I was afraid I might have to touch up the edge on my hones but decided to try a vigorous stropping first. Did something like 50 laps on linen and 200 on leather and the edge dramatically improved, very comfortable but very sharp. Maybe the photographer had the blade propped up on the edge at one point, not realizing how delicate a razor's edge is compared to a pocket knife. He also didn't get a shot of the end of the razor showing the full hollow grind of the blade (down to two-thousandths of an inch!).

Really nice!

Very nice and thanks for sharing....

Wow, what a nice razor.

Regards

Christian

Congrats to you and Joe.

That. Is. Friggin. Fantastic!

Beautiful razor, congratulations .

Like your taste in custom razors, truly good looking. Kudos to Joe for putting it all together in fine fashion.

Bob

I've had great experiences working with Joe as well - fantastic all around.
Really like the custom file work on your new razor. Everything came together very nicely.
Enjoy!

A masterpiece!

Very nice, and from the linked pics, looks like a superb hollow grind has been put on the blade - very, very nice. Congrats!

I love it! The name is perfect for that stunning razor:)

Fantastic, superb, excelet work! Congratulations! And nice picture too.

A stunning razor. Kudos to Joe for a superb work of art!

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Originally Posted by Phrank

Very nice, and from the linked pics, looks like a superb hollow grind has been put on the blade - very, very nice. Congrats!

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Yes, a very nice extra hollow grind, Joe said it was the thinnest he has ever done, down to two thousandths of an inch at the edge, and (paraphrasing) made his butthole pucker while grinding. I compared it to some of my best Solingen razors, a Wusthoh Tridente Eleganza and a Dubl Duck Wonderedge, and Joe's grind is thinner than the Wonderedge and as thin as the Tridente.

Wow, are you sure that razor ain't reserved for royalty?

Thanks for sharing this.

This was in fact one of if not the hardest razors I've taken on. The filework wasn't terrible....once I spent a good amount of time perfecting how to make each scale on a scrap piece before attempting on the razor. The actual tail (or "Devil's tip) took most of the time as refining that to shape slowly with a file and sandpaper took longer than anticipated (likely cause I started with too much material to remove).

These full hollow grinds are also something I freely admit I'm not the most comfortable with yet. I still lose a razor here and there with trying to grind to these thinnesses for such a large portion of the hollow. The thought of turning all the filework and time spent before into the trash was always present on my mind during the final grind.

The goldplating was new to me, but there is enough info out there to get a nice setup. I already had a variable power supply for anodizing titanium and found it easy to adapt to the nickle and gold plating. What wasn't fun was masking out the portions not to be plated. I used finger nail polish and found at the solution temperatures for the plating that the polish became "gooey" and didn't function as a great mask. In the end there was a bit of clean up to get the gold lines more crisp.

All in all, was a fun project to take on that allows me to continue to push myself. That said not sure if I'd want to take on anything similar anytime soon, lol.

Outstanding craftsmanship & one amazing razor.
Thanks for the razor porn.
Cheer's Paul

Beautiful work from Joe superb.

Congratulations to you and Joe!!
That razor is stunning!
I have been admiring Joe's awesome work for quite some time now.
Seeing this makes me want to get out the piggy bank and the hammer!

Pete <:-}

Its almost to pretty to use.

I love seeing things done that are not the same old same old. Not that theres anything wrong with it, its just boring to me.

Great design and excellent work. Great name too.

Fantastic Razor.Joe where did you get the musk ox burl,Used to work with it alot,can no longer find it:(

Love the scales and spine work very nice indeed

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Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Fantastic Razor.Joe where did you get the musk ox burl,Used to work with it alot,can no longer find it:(

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I had this piece saved for awhile that I obtained from a knife maker.

Honestly haven't run across anymore and it certainly is much more rare to get than mammoth ivory. Wish I could find a steady source/supply.

The burl is far more rare than Mammoth,Randall buys most of it.

My god that is beautiful!