Thread: Full hollow wootz razor in stabilised colored burl

This one is the most hollow razor I ever made. Full hollow with a small belly even. If I am honest it was a lemons to lemonade scenario. During grinding I hit a wootz fault. This is similar to a bad weld in a piece of Damascus. Bascially when wootz is melted, there's a lot of stuff in a crucible, and if something gets trapped in the melt you get a 'bubble'.

There is a reason I buy my wootz from Evrahim even though his is expensive. Firstly, he can make me large amounts when I need to (few people can help you when you ask for a yard of 3/8 by 1.25 wootz on short notice). But secondly he has his process down pat so that he can reliably make ingots that are free of faults. When I asked him about the fault, he immediately proposed exchanging the steel. Certainly this was a good offer yet I decided to try and grind it out if I could after I sunk the time in it already.

I had to grind one side so deep that I virtually was at the middle before the fault was gone so I matched the other side and voila, full hollow razor It is so thin I was worried I'd grind through the middle at one point. Still, all's well that ends well.

The scales material is colored burl I picked up at the Gemboux knife show. I like flashy colors on razors. Especially on Damascus or wootz razors because they are darker. And I like burl. It's the wootz of wood I limited myself to 2 blocks, and this came from the first one. Working it was fairly easy. All in all most time went into the 20 or so layers of CA. The scales were made by cutting a 1/4 slab from the block, making the scales outline, and then sawing it lengthwise to get a nice set of bookmatched scales.

Beautiful job, Bruno! I love the blade and those chunky burled scales!

Beautiful razor, magnificent scales!

Beautiful Bruno. I not only love the look of the razor , but the story of how you change directions on a fly to save it. Great work again!

Beautiful Bruno, you're a true master.

Beautiful.

Very cool looking razor!


Mike

Beautiful Razor Bruno! And Wootz to boot!! Awesome!!

That's a beautiful razor Bruno and a nice story behind it. The burl really accompanies the blade perfectly. Thanks for sharing.

Beautiful!