Razor Making attempt 1

Since everybody is posting their amazing work on this forum I thought I'd go for a change of pace and show my butcher job!

Here is my first attempt to make a razor, It is a laziness inspired Japanese handle style razor:
Attachment 269290

Unfortunately when heating for the heat treat I sorta kinda melted a huge chunk out of the edge then by the time I ground that out and got the edge back to somewhat razor like I was left with this under 3/8 pencil. meaning the spine was way too thick of the width of the blade and thus the edge geometry was wayyyyyyy off.

This is going to take practice, but stay tuned for attempt 2!

You're looking at it all wrong: that is a fine, fine letter opener! :)

They are tricky little things to make. I have made plenty of knives and other sharp things, but it wasn't until I was half-way through forging my attempt #1 that I really appreciated what was involved. I fought with that one and got it looking pretty close to what I wanted, only for me to over heat it while grinding then hear the tell-tale "ping" of it cracking. :(

One thing that comes to mind is that if you're melting it during heat treat, you're getting it way hotter than you need! Depends on the steel, but it's usually just a cherry red colour that you need. Or whenever it goes non-magnetic.

hahaha!

yeah that sounds pretty familiar!

the problem was Im using an oxy-asetaline torch to heat it, so I held it too close to the edge for just a second too long and because its so thin it just dripped right off.

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Originally Posted by Swifty2point0

hahaha!

yeah that sounds pretty familiar!

the problem was Im using an oxy-asetaline torch to heat it, so I held it too close to the edge for just a second too long and because its so thin it just dripped right off.

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Ooh, yeah.. that would do it.

You need a rosebud tip, a steady hand, and some experience to do that.

I think? :)

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Originally Posted by sharptonn

You need a rosebud tip, a steady hand, and some experience to do that.

I think? :)

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Even then I think it will be tricky because the blade material is so thin. One of the advantages of a forge over a torch is that you will get a much more even heat compared to a torch. Even with a rosebud, it will (I think) be pretty tricky to get the whole blade heated evenly.

Would be cool if it works though. :)

Also most of us leave the blade about 1mm thick or more when we heat treat. Then do the final grind after HT.

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Originally Posted by bluesman7

Also most of us leave the blade about 1mm thick or more when we heat treat. Then do the final grind after HT.

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What Victor said.

Also if you're using an oxy acetylene torch, it may be a better idea to take a piece or iron pipe (NOT and I mean ABSOLUTELY NOT galvanized) and heat that with the torch, and the razor inside the pipe. That's how I used to HT my razors in a charcoal fire. It makes for a heat buffer and a heat equalizer. You can get perfect HT that way, without having to worry about melting the razor.

Look up some plans on how to make your own little forge. It can be fairly small, as far as I've seen. Good luck. I need to find someone willing to heat treat my steel for a REASONABLE price. I shop in my state wanted around $200.+ to do it! I said, hell no.

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Originally Posted by WILDMAN1

Look up some plans on how to make your own little forge. It can be fairly small, as far as I've seen. Good luck. I need to find someone willing to heat treat my steel for a REASONABLE price. I shop in my state wanted around $200.+ to do it! I said, hell no.

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I'd do it for free if it was a one-off but shipping would be a bit silly.

yeah thats the plan! I'm going to make a simple coal forge and see how it goes

Shipping would be much cheaper than paying $200.+ to have it HT/normalized.

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Originally Posted by WILDMAN1

Shipping would be much cheaper than paying $200.+ to have it HT/normalized.

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There is a Canadian knifemaker supply place that offers heat treat service at *way* less than $200: a razor-sized piece would be less than the equivalent of $10 USD. I can't vouch for their service as I have never used it, and I suspect you'd rather not ship across the border, but surely there's somewhere closer to you that is more reasonable than the $200 you were quoted.

https://www.knifemaker.ca/Heat-Treat-Service/

Results from a quick google search:

Pricing - Peters' Heat Treating Peters' Heat Treating

https://trugrit.com/

Again, can't vouch for them as I do my own hardening/tempering, but a quick glance at some knife making forums seem to point to them as go-to resources. Caveat emptor, etc., and so on.