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

"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..

Originally Posted by Grazor

Looks almost too good to use..

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