Thread: 52100

Originally Posted by woodscavenger

I am amazed at your full hollows. Cannot find people near me with razor experience. Do you use the 4” and create a holow grind then use the smaller wheel to take it down near the spine? I would love to watch you grind one. My first ones were heavy at the edge, I am improving but still get nervous.

do you grind edge up or edge down?

Well if you're ever in MT send a PM and spend a day in my shop.

Not sure how Blueman does it but I start with a large wheel that grinds from the edge up toward the spine but not all the way, then you go into the spine area with a smaller wheel. Once done you're left with two crisp grinds and the belly which you can then grind away some with a third operation before blending. I watched a bunch of razor grinding videos to figure it all out as well as an old Soviet razor grinding manual and it seems that's how it's done in the factories. There's a good 3 part series of videos filmed at Wacker Solingen where they show grinding the belly and then blending over with a wheel made from walrus leather using a slurry of oil and emery powder.

The hardest thing is getting a nice uniform line when grinding the two hollows, easier to do with a double wheel grinder but not so easy on a regular 2x72 just using your hands. If the line isn't straight, even when you blend the belly, when you move the blade in the light you get a wavy, undulating reflection which looks kind of ugly.

You really need to grind as close to an apex as possible to get the thinness at the edge. On some razors as I'm going into the finer grits I might even get a very slight burr on the edge. Even on wedge blades I grind thin enough to flex the edge over the thumb. If you leave them too thick when you go to set a bevel it ends up too wide then you have to go back and grind more. I only like to set the bevel at the end of all the grinding operations so I get everything as thin as possible but some people like to do some of the grinding, set the bevel, then go back to make the bevel thin and even. I don't like grinding a razor/knife that has an edge on though for safety reasons.

Great info. I have looked for grinding videos but there are not many I can find except the basic single wheel grinds.
I will start digging deeper.

Originally Posted by woodscavenger

I am amazed at your full hollows. Cannot find people near me with razor experience. Do you use the 4” and create a holow grind then use the smaller wheel to take it down near the spine? I would love to watch you grind one. My first ones were heavy at the edge, I am improving but still get nervous.

do you grind edge up or edge down?

Yes the 4.5" wheel creates a half hollow on a 7/8 blank and the smaller wheel removes material near the spine and creates the belly. I used to blend those two radii to get rid of the grind line near the edge, but then I decided that I should emphasize it.

I grind edge up.

Originally Posted by woodscavenger

Great info. I have looked for grinding videos but there are not many I can find except the basic single wheel grinds.
I will start digging deeper.

Well with a lot of the videos they don't explicitly give you wheel sizes or procedure steps, it's just a matter of observation. All the videos showing hollow grinding are from manufacturers, I haven't seen any from artisan makers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ksM...ist=WL&index=7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p63s...t=WL&index=151

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBeN...t=WL&index=152

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eIBh2OXK44

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_nPeYm5wZw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_-s0phRZng

These should get you going.

Originally Posted by woodscavenger

I am amazed at your full hollows. Cannot find people near me with razor experience. Do you use the 4” and create a holow grind then use the smaller wheel to take it down near the spine? I would love to watch you grind one. My first ones were heavy at the edge, I am improving but still get nervous.

do you grind edge up or edge down?

Victor uses bondo to grind razors.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Victor uses bondo to grind razors.

That's polyester based fixturing compound!

HAR! I am seeing a Movember challenge involving our oldest (really old!) makers!

Perhaps a Bluesman's blade from Victor and a Snail Forge Bruno creation up for bids?
We shall see what's-what!

Well wait for mine to come up, some very interesting auctions coming

I’m digging into both the todo, and the done boxes for some auction items as well.
We are a small group, but the auction seems to generat some excitement in an otherwise drab month..
Should be fun gents..

I have even hit and miss on the board. tell me about the auction.