Thread: First Japanese Style Razor, Critiques Welcome.

Beautiful razor ! Very Wabi-Sabi.
I think I have a new variety of RAD now.
Where does the buyers cue start ?

Os

i would be very interested in this or one like this. i love the handle. very primitive, but functional. there are a few that would be interested if you were to sell it, or loan it out for a few test shaves!!!

good job.

vgod

THats very nice Russel .Its ashame that there are no UK knife makers Iv'e spoken to so far that wantto try their hand at making razors.Paul

A really good job. It must have been very satisfying for you. i think the blade looks fantastic in that sort of raw state.
To my mind razors should be either raw or mirror finish. I also like a good patina on an old blade. What I am not keen on is the halfway house blades that are trying to be mirror but didn't quite make it.

WOW!

Thank you all for the compliments, you really don't know how much it means to me.

...here's a sneak peek of the newest one...

Bjrn, yes it has the traditional asymmetrical grind. And I have temporarily wrapped the handle in a strip of leather, but I'm not sure if it is any better with it this way.

Russel,

One thing I've noticed is that the width of the bevel is less dependent on the size of the wheel than on how thin you take the edge before honing. A .003" edge will have a much narrower bevel than a .010" edge. My first razors had edges in the .010" to .020" range, and they had very wide bevels and were a nightmare to hone.

I grind to about .020", heat treat, then grind as thin as humanly possible right at the edge. That makes honing much easier. My last razor was sold unsharpened, and it took the owner less than 20 minutes to have it shave-ready.

Keep up the good work!

Josh

Yes, I corrected that on the second razor, kind of tricky and something you wouldn't normally think about.

Thanks though, great to be able to compare numbers. I have been heat treating at ~.05 because I've been doing water quenches and would rather grind a little more than warp or crack the blade. But I've never really tried to see how thin it could go and still work. ...great now I have to try it, thanks Josh... sheesh.

Very nice! I was hoping someone would begin experimenting with this style, and this is a fine specimen indeed. I really like that it's basically a chunk of steel Glad to hear it shaves well too!

Originally Posted by Russel Baldridge

Yes, I corrected that on the second razor, kind of tricky and something you wouldn't normally think about.

Thanks though, great to be able to compare numbers. I have been heat treating at ~.05 because I've been doing water quenches and would rather grind a little more than warp or crack the blade. But I've never really tried to see how thin it could go and still work. ...great now I have to try it, thanks Josh... sheesh.

Russel,

Yeah, I realized after I posted that that you were water quenching. I'm not brave enough for that yet. You probably will have to leave the blade thicker than I am right now.

It's worth experimenting with, though. Even if you ruin several blades in the process, in the long haul you'll recover that time by minimizing how much hardened steel you have to grind through.

I have some W1 that is going to get a water quench one of these days. It hardened just fine in quenching oil, but I think the hamon will be nice once I get my satinite to do a clay treatment....

Josh