Lake Superior, Sand Smelted, Michi-gane Razor

Those of you familiar with my work know I don't post here often. Life is just too busy. But, I have done something recently that some of you may find interesting. Since there will be very few of these razors, I decided to post a few photos here.

This is my very first razor made from Lake Superior beach sand. The sand was smelted in a bloomery style smelter. The resulting bloom was folded and welded until I had a good piece of steel to work with. This is essentially the same as Japanese Tamahagane. But, it wasn't smelted from Japanese sand, in a Tatara smelter located in Japan. So, I just call it Michi-gane".

The whole story has been written-up and will be in "Knives 2012", due out sometime in the Spring.

The photos below are of the Lake Superior collection site, my smelter, and the finished razor. In keeping with the "made in Michigan" theme, the scales are from a Whitetail deer shot by my father-in-law.

I do plan on doing more "Michi-gane" in the future. Making razors and knives from "dirt" is pretty addicting. I hope you enjoy the photos.

Tim Z.

That's amazing.
Can't wait to read more about the details.

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Originally Posted by superbleu

That's amazing.
Can't wait to read more about the details.

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+1 !! I find this kind of stuff to be what life is about. Making magic from dirt.

I read about this on your website. Too cool. Now, JimmyHAD finally has a custom maker he can look up to. You're no poser :)

Awesome stuff, Sir. :beer1:

Amazing.. just out of curiosity how many razors could you get out of the bloom you produced? I know I will have to start watching for these to show up online and save to grab one.

Very nice.

Thanks for the post,the process sounds like a good time. I now have something to dream about.

Charlie

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Originally Posted by Troggie

Amazing.. just out of curiosity how many razors could you get out of the bloom you produced? I know I will have to start watching for these to show up online and save to grab one.

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That first bloom could have made four razors. It ended up being one razor and two knives. My current blooms are bigger and my folding technique is better. So, my current yields have gone up a bit.

Tim Z.

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Originally Posted by spazola

Thanks for the post,the process sounds like a good time. I now have something to dream about.

Charlie

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Charlie, come on up to "the land of perpetual winter". We'll melt some sand and have a good time. You're always welcome.

Tim Z.

Fantastic! I'm getting really into the steel side of things, and it's awesome to see someone take it to this level.

But maybe "Mihagane" sounds better... ;)

Tim, thanks for sharing the process and the resulting razor. Absolutely stunning.

Oh wow. That is seriously cool stuff.

Very cool. I grew up very close to Lake Superior (less than 3.5 miles away as the crow flies) and spent many hours fishing on it with my Dad and swimming in it. It's in my bones. I love it. Thanks for sharing such a great razor from a master.

Chris L

Iron is iron the world over. Might be interesting to see what the spectrograph shows for minor alloying elements though.

What was your yield (bloom out/ore in)? How about slag production? Got any spark pictures of the billet against the wheel?

I'm just full of questions...

So much pride resinates from this razor, makes me feel proud just looking at the images. Great job.

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Originally Posted by Mike Blue

Iron is iron the world over. Might be interesting to see what the spectrograph shows for minor alloying elements though.

What was your yield (bloom out/ore in)? How about slag production? Got any spark pictures of the billet against the wheel?

I'm just full of questions...

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Mike, No spectrograph, but lots of micrographs. The hardened steel is martensite with excess cementite. our best guess is about 0.90% C.

We didn't filter the sand. So there was lots of silica sand mixed in. The sand was about 15% magnatite and 13% hematite, and the rest was mostly silica sand. 45 pounds of sand gave a solid 5 1/2 pound bloom that was very high carbon. With all that silica sand, we mad lots of very runny, magnetic slag. Just for fun, I'm going to try a slag smelt later this winter.

I didn't take any spark pictures. the bloom and finished bar had plenty of carbon. There was no excess ferrite in the hardened steel.

I'm doing a smelt next week... so many things to try. I'm playing with sorting the sand as well. But it is fun to take it right off the beach and run it through the smelter.

Tim Z.

That is just incredible. Thanks for posting. Your razor was definitely built from "the ground, up". (sorry, a little cheesy !!) :)

Beautiful Job Tim, Thank you for telling about this Michigan Magic!:boohoo:

As others have commented already, very cool indeed. Talk about grassroots-sustainable-artisanal razor making :)
Very inspiring to be sure.

Now this has me investigating the geological characteristics of my home town, Las Vegas. There's iron in them hills!

It is wonderful to see an art revived to a high art. It's great to see that processes like this are not going to be lost and the end result looks perfect.
Congratulations

Now thats what I call made from scratch! Very nice work!

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Originally Posted by Tim Zowada

Mike, No spectrograph, but lots of micrographs. The hardened steel is martensite with excess cementite. our best guess is about 0.90% C.

We didn't filter the sand. So there was lots of silica sand mixed in. The sand was about 15% magnatite and 13% hematite, and the rest was mostly silica sand. 45 pounds of sand gave a solid 5 1/2 pound bloom that was very high carbon. With all that silica sand, we mad lots of very runny, magnetic slag. Just for fun, I'm going to try a slag smelt later this winter.

I didn't take any spark pictures. the bloom and finished bar had plenty of carbon. There was no excess ferrite in the hardened steel.

I'm doing a smelt next week... so many things to try. I'm playing with sorting the sand as well. But it is fun to take it right off the beach and run it through the smelter.

Tim Z.

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Cool cool, thanks for that. It's all about the fun.

Mike

Tim,

I grew up in Michigan, a bit lower than you though.

If you ever put any of the Michi-gan up for sale or trade please let me know. I would love to do a knife or two from it.

Jim

Amazing Tim, well done! :)

Is there any advantage of doing this? Is the steel any better than what can be bought commercially or is it just the fun in making it?

Thanks.

Lynn

Being a Michigan native and having grown up around the TC area and surrounding lakes....you make us proud ! GO MICHIGAN !!

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Originally Posted by Lynn

Is there any advantage of doing this? Is the steel any better than what can be bought commercially or is it just the fun in making it?

Thanks.

Lynn

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Lynn, As you know, "better" is a very subjective term. The real value in a blade like this is more intrinsic in nature. It is similar to using meteorite in a Damascus blade. You can say, "See those silver lines? They fell from the sky!". Here, the "touchy/feely" thought is the blade was merely sand on a beach just a few months ago. Then, the effort was taken to use a 3,000 year old process and make something of it. It is the same process as was used by the Japanese sword makers, using local sand, by one smith, in the USA, blah, blah, blah,... I think you get it.

Does it shave well? Yes. Does it shave as well as modern steel? Yes. Is the care and honing/stropping different than modern steel? Yes. Is it magic, and makes whiskers fall off your face by merely gazing at it? Nope.

The best analogy I can think of is; using this razor gives a feeling that is similar to catching a trout on a fly you tied, while using a bamboo fly rod you built, and even harvested, dried, planed, and laminated the cane. Complete satisfaction.

Tim Z.

Tim,

Are you going to try any other of Michigan's or other state beach sand or is the mineral make up of it not as great as the Lake Superior sand?

Also with the cost of smelting and refining the material does it end up being more of a niche type of process ( to cost prohibitive ) to do a lot compared to purchasing material?

See I was yearning for a meteorite steel razor cause I heard the shave is .... out of this world .... and now there is this. :gaah: What I want now is some meteorite thrown into the cooker and sand from the Hull Rust open pit mine in Hibbing, Minnesota. :)

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Originally Posted by Troggie

Tim,

Are you going to try any other of Michigan's or other state beach sand or is the mineral make up of it not as great as the Lake Superior sand?

Also with the cost of smelting and refining the material does it end up being more of a niche type of process ( to cost prohibitive ) to do a lot compared to purchasing material?

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Troggie, The Lake Superior sand can just be scooped up off the shore. The hematite helps it separate in to layers, making collection easier. The local sand (Northern Lake Michigan) has a fair amount of magnetite in it. But, it is mixed in with a lot of other stuff. I'll be dragging a magnet around in the spring.

Bloomery smelting is a very costly, time consuming process. It was made obsolete, almost overnight, by the introduction of the Bessemer furnace in the mid-1850s. Smelted blades will be significantly more expensive than my regular Damascus blades. Yet, I plan on doing a lot more of it during the coming months. It's just too much fun.

Tim Z.

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

See I was yearning for a meteorite steel razor cause I heard the shave is .... out of this world .... and now there is this. :gaah: What I want now is some meteorite thrown into the cooker and sand from the Hull Rust open pit mine in Hibbing, Minnesota. :)

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Jimmy, You're a little ahead of me. I'm planning on making some "Damascus" by combining the smelted sand steel with meteorite later this winter.

If you get me some ore from the Hibbing mine, I'll use it...

Tim Z.

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Originally Posted by Tim Zowada

Jimmy, You're a little ahead of me. I'm planning on making some "Damascus" by combining the smelted sand steel with meteorite later this winter.

If you get me some ore from the Hibbing mine, I'll use it...

Tim Z.

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Thanks Tim, if I can get one of our brethren in MN to take a road trip .... I'll have to see if I can't mine some gold in the meanwhile to be able to take advantage of it. :D

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Originally Posted by Tim Zowada

The local sand (Northern Lake Michigan) has a fair amount of magnetite in it. But, it is mixed in with a lot of other stuff. I'll be dragging a magnet around in the spring.

Tim Z.

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Well I will know who to say "Hi" to when I head up north with the Family and see someone with a magnet on the beach:D

Now how to convince the wife the it is a life or death situation to procure one of these razors. :w

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Thanks Tim, if I can get one of our brethren in MN to take a road trip .... I'll have to see if I can't mine some gold in the meanwhile to be able to take advantage of it. :D

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Just let me know when you want some Jimmy. Work takes me up that way fairly regularly. (of course... it would probably be easier if you want it after the ground thaws!)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tim Zowada

Lynn, As you know, "better" is a very subjective term. The real value in a blade like this is more intrinsic in nature. It is similar to using meteorite in a Damascus blade. You can say, "See those silver lines? They fell from the sky!". Here, the "touchy/feely" thought is the blade was merely sand on a beach just a few months ago. Then, the effort was taken to use a 3,000 year old process and make something of it. It is the same process as was used by the Japanese sword makers, using local sand, by one smith, in the USA, blah, blah, blah,... I think you get it.

Does it shave well? Yes. Does it shave as well as modern steel? Yes. Is the care and honing/stropping different than modern steel? Yes. Is it magic, and makes whiskers fall off your face by merely gazing at it? Nope.

The best analogy I can think of is; using this razor gives a feeling that is similar to catching a trout on a fly you tied, while using a bamboo fly rod you built, and even harvested, dried, planed, and laminated the cane. Complete satisfaction.

Tim Z.

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Tim , I think its awesome you are making razors this way.
I had the great pleasure of restoring & honing a tamahagane razor made by Iwasaki & I was once a devout fly fisherman & flytyer. I never rolled my own from bamboo but I really 'get it'. There is a great but subtle beauty that can be revealed in this steel which is uncommon in modern steels & the fact that it can rival or better modern steels in function is a tribute to the maker, the process & mother nature :tu