Thread: Wootz razor in progress

We are waiting for your pictures, I wonder what the result.

Still struggling with it. I etched in ferric chloride, and then polished it again. I can see the pattern. It is right there in the shiny steel. I just cannot yet get it to come out in contrast. Every time I try to bring out the contrast, I overshoot, and the entire blade darkens. When I try to polish that away, I also polish the pattern away.

I am thinking I may not have polished deep enough to bring out the contrast. I will do some more experimenting.

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Can't wait until you get it all hammered out! Hah. Get it! Maybe if I'm good the wife will let me get you to make me one.


Mike

Originally Posted by Bruno

Still struggling with it. I etched in ferric chloride, and then polished it again. I can see the pattern. It is right there in the shiny steel. I just cannot yet get it to come out in contrast. Every time I try to bring out the contrast, I overshoot, and the entire blade darkens. When I try to polish that away, I also polish the pattern away.

I am thinking I may not have polished deep enough to bring out the contrast. I will do some more experimenting.

Wootz does not etch the same way a typical carbon steel does. The dielectric potentials are different (I think that's what I remember). Some have had better luck using a mix of nitric acid (dangerous) and alcohol. Use a simple wash and live with the result.

Success!!!!

Ok it's not perfect. I tried several things, and finally found something that worked. completely different than what was recommended, but there you go. The fact that a razor is hollow ground makes a difference, just because the way you sand and polish a knife is different. In any case, this is the result. There is still some room for improvement, but at least now I have a process to play with.

The pattern is a lot more subtle than the normal pattern welded patterns. For the next razor I think I will do all forging with a ball peen hammer. that should give a lot more ripple in the pattern. Though I have to say that I am quite happy with this, so far.

I took the picture on a background of mammoth tusk ivory, which is imo what this razor should be scaled with. It is fairly expensive though. Just the raw materials you see in the pic were the price of a normal finished razor.

I uploaded a large pic. If you watch it in full, you'll see the pattern is pretty neat.

Hahaaaa!

Now that the meet is done I finally had some time to hammer down the scales material details with the customer.
Mammoth Ivory it is!

Very nice razor Bruno!

Thanks Mike. I am doing a couple of wootz razors in preparation for the pendray wootz.
I want to have the basic process down before I go there.

Wootz and Mammoth Ivory are just meant to be together.

This is how it looked before buffing the scales and pinning everything together.



I just sanded the scales again because after the first round on the buffer, I saw some remaining scratch lines. Then I pinned everything together. Having seen so many pivot cracks on vintage ivory which was all pinned very tight, I opted to drill the holes slightly oversize, and rely on the washers to keep everything together.

This does mean that the scales have room to work and the blade will be a bit offcenter depending on the weather and what the scales decide to do. This shouldn't pose a big problem, because the shoulders guide the blade between the scales. And this way I hope I can avoid the pivot cracks caused by stress in tightly pinned ivory scales.

Tomorrow I will hone it and take proper pics.