Thread: Work in Progress: Pete's razor

Today I heat treated the Damascus - wootz composite blade. I can happily report that everything stayed together and I didn't get a visit from the 'tink' fairy. I normalized the blade a couple of times before quenching. My hypothesis on the heat treatment for O2 Damascus and wootz composite blades turned out to be correct. This is the blade after the second tempering cycle.

I didn't see anything that might indicate a problem. But just for the sake of sleeping well tonight, I polished the hollows with a 240 grit belt and was happy to discover that the hollows are whole and devoid of the telltale lines and specks that could indicate a bad weld.

So yaay.

The most critical parts of the process are out of the way now. From here on it is a matter of careful grinding to get the blade to the point where it can be etched.

WOOT!

It is finished. I'll be honing is shortly, and then taking good pics in a lightbox.
However I do feel it would be cruel not to share at least a couple of quick pics I took with my cellphone.

I am super happy with how the pattern turned out. I am also happy that the wootz structure got exposed so nicely. And for a while I was afraid that the structure of the strips of 1095 / 15N20 was invisible because it was too fine. But they show up very well in the last pic.

Oh "WOW" its magnificent.
Very ,very nice work, Bruno.
Can't wait for the light box, and see it in full glory. [emoji482]

It is stunning the way the damascus make the top of the blade and wootz the bottom. I think this is a pretty unique look. The pattern is very wood grain, in part because if the way it "moves", almost random. I am really looking forward to the next steps.

NICE! Love that 'wood grain' look.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And here it is, in all it's glory. The pics of the full razor show a bit less detail than the closeup pattern of the pic. Still, you've seen the pattern so these next pics are about the razor as a whole. As you can see the gem color matches the spacer.

That is just one beautiful straight razor. Stunning is a perfect fit for this razor.

Well executed Bruno. What was your finishing stone, if I may ask.?

Wow!!... Holy Cow!!....
This way exceeds all of my expectations!
I simply can't wait for the feeling of a Wootz shave, and to see this up close and in person.
And...
I simply can't thank Bruno enough. Being able to turn someone's vision into reality defines being a true artist. This razor simply proves it to be true.

YaaHoooooo!

Pete <:-}

Originally Posted by outback

Well executed Bruno. What was your finishing stone, if I may ask.?

16K shapton on glass stone. I bought it from lynn after borrowing it.
If the 8K step before it is good, a couple of strokes on the 16K is all it needs to bring it to perfection.