Thread: Hybrid wootz and damascus razor

This is a project that has been quite a while in the making. It's been in the planning stage since last year and it finally came together.

The body of this razor is a piece of damascus that I made at Charlie's place. I started a 5 layer billet, which became 13 layers, which was cut and split in 2 stacks. One stack was twisted clockwise, the other counter clockwise. Those 2 pieces were drawn out, cleaned up and forged together. Finally, that billet was twisted clockwise again and drawn out. A piece of wootz was drawn out from a bar, and forge welded underneath the damascus body.

One thing that did not turn out as expected was that during the creation of the billet, I had inserted thin strips of metal that I thought were nickel, but instead were 15N20 or something very similar to 15N20. Since I already had 15N20 in the billet, those thin strips don't show up anymore since they are stacked against thicker strips of the same(ish) steel. Still, the pattern action going on in the damascus is the same

That was the most fun part of the project. After the forging, it was simply a matter of grinding the razor from that blank. The scales are Juma Ivory snake. I just had a test shave, and shaved like a dream, thankfully

Awesome, Bruno.

Very cool patterning to that steel. And the scales on those scales looks very awesome, and practical texturing to boot.
Well done again B.

Beautiful work. This is a top-notch piece of work. Even I'd it didn't shave I would want it for a display piece!

Beautiful Bruno. You did it again! Those scales are quite different. Did you have the patern cut or do it yourself? Nice!

I'll say it....KICK ASS..!!
And I know what it would be like to shave with it, too.

That's off the hook, Bruno.

Oh my, Bruno. Stunning!

Wow! The textures with those scales. Beutifull!

That is beautiful, creative, imaginative bit of artistic craftsmanship, Bruno. I absolutely love it. So well done. Tom Du Jardin

Originally Posted by Gasman

Beautiful Bruno. You did it again! Those scales are quite different. Did you have the patern cut or do it yourself? Nice!

That is Juma Ivory Snake.
It comes with that pattern. It can be a be tricky to work with because normally I always make bookmatched scales by first making the scales shape and then cutting lengthwise. But this material is polarized. If you cut it lengthwise, then one of the pieces will have the pattern on the inside, with the show side being smudgy and indistinct. So you first need to cut a rectangular piece from the whole, splits it, flip one of the pieces, and then make scales.

And while doing this, you have to try and get it to still have similar patterns on both sides, even though you flipped one of the pieces.