Thread: Work in Progress: Pete's razor

Thanks for sharing these, looking forward to seeing more progress pictures!

Another wild looking razor! can not wait to see the final

Well...

That didn't go as planned
The splitting and re-welding was ok. The twisting, not so much. I never really bothered to really mount the old heavy vise I use to hold the billet for twisting. Instead, I just sort of held it with one leg while using 2 hands to twist the other hand with an old pipe wrench that I welded a piece of pipe to.

As you can imagine, this does not make for a really solid base to work from, nor allow you to build up torque because you are always twisting against your own stability. As a result, I took far too long to get it done. The billet got too cold, and essentially split badly. After I cut off the bad bits, this is what I had left. By far not enough for a razor. I think I'll forge it into a kiridashi (small cutting knife) because it's not much good for anything else.



Not to worry, I already made a new billet. I cleaned the sides and gave it a quick etch to see if there would be visible seams between layers. But before I will twist it, I'll make a fixture for mounting the vise on top of my anvil so that it has a rock solid base. Additionally, I will be able to see much more clearly what I am doing, and I can do it much more quickly.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Well...

That didn't go as planned
The splitting and re-welding was ok. The twisting, not so much. I never really bothered to really mount the old heavy vise I use to hold the billet for twisting. Instead, I just sort of held it with one leg while using 2 hands to twist the other hand with an old pipe wrench that I welded a piece of pipe to.

As you can imagine, this does not make for a really solid base to work from, nor allow you to build up torque because you are always twisting against your own stability. As a result, I took far too long to get it done. The billet got too cold, and essentially split badly. After I cut off the bad bits, this is what I had left. By far not enough for a razor. I think I'll forge it into a kiridashi (small cutting knife) because it's not much good for anything else.



Not to worry, I already made a new billet. I cleaned the sides and gave it a quick etch to see if there would be visible seams between layers. But before I will twist it, I'll make a fixture for mounting the vise on top of my anvil so that it has a rock solid base. Additionally, I will be able to see much more clearly what I am doing, and I can do it much more quickly.

Bruno is that broken piece big enough to make a blade section out of?

Probably, yes. It would need cleaning up a bit more. the main issue is that there would not be enough left to make a tang.
Or I could perhaps draw it out, cut it in half and sandwich a piece of carbon steel in between and then make a razor out of it.
Still it would be borderline not enough for a full razor even then, I think.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Probably, yes. It would need cleaning up a bit more. the main issue is that there would not be enough left to make a tang.
Or I could perhaps draw it out, cut it in half and sandwich a piece of carbon steel in between and then make a razor out of it.
Still it would be borderline not enough for a full razor even then, I think.

Ill Pm you....

Originally Posted by Bruno

Probably, yes. It would need cleaning up a bit more. the main issue is that there would not be enough left to make a tang.
Or I could perhaps draw it out, cut it in half and sandwich a piece of carbon steel in between and then make a razor out of it.
Still it would be borderline not enough for a full razor even then, I think.

How about a custom shorty..!!
Kind of a DePew type of blade.

Sadly, it is not to be. I cleaned up the little twist and it had a bad weld all the way through.

Today my wife granted me some free time after shopping for tomorrow, and I decided to forge out the new billet. Since my fire was at welding heat, I prepared a second 7 layer billet and forge welded it and drew it out to full length. the second one is the bigger one because I didn't clean it up first before drawing it out. Both billets are looking solid and are now annealing in the oven. I'll have to cut off the ends (this is normal) but for the rest they are solid and free of flaws as far as I can see.

Next week I will mount my vise, and then cut first one in 3 pieces, clean them up and stack them again to make a billet with 21 layers that I can draw out into a more or less square bar for twisting in a more controlled manner this time.

The second billet is not really necessary at this time, but I can always use more Damascus for making razors. And I work with charcoal. Bringing a charcoal fire to welding heat and keeping it there is a bit involved. Not tricky but it's something you have to create and keep an eye on to develop the hot spot. Since I had it going, I used it for the second billet and I forged it out into a 10" bar.

Today the weather turned sunny so I grabbed the opportunity to proceed. I had already cleaned up the initial billet, and now cut it in 3 parts which I stacked again. The new stack was forge welded , drawn out, twisted into a torsion bar, and squared up again. I forgot to take pics of the initial stacking today, but it is self explanatory. The resulting bar was cleaned up and lightly etched to see what it looked like.

I've abandoned my original idea of using a simple torsion bar for the main body. Instead, I have cut this bar, and made another stack , with the 2 pieces of torsion bar, and 2 thinner pieces of ladder Damascus. This I will forgeweld yet again, and draw out into the body of a razor. After that I will forge to size a small bar of wootz, which I can then weld to the main body.

Awesome, Bruno.
Pete's a special guy, but I believe this might be more special, than he. [emoji56]

Can't wait....!!!!!