Circuit Board Scales, Krusius Brothers Blade

Inspired by the murder mystery The Broken Window, by Jeffery Deaver. The book was brought to my attention by a post from charlie762 here . One of the main characters has a collection of 89 razors, his favorite being a Krusius Brothers. This was enough for me to read this story.

Scales are from printed circuit board. To keep the sharp and pointy solder ends away from finger tips, the board/scales are finished inside and out with epoxy resin, sanded down to a round conture. Wedge is bone, stainless washers, nickle rods to pin together. Blade is Krusius Brothers.

*****spoiler alert*****
*****if you intend to read the book, you may want to stop reading*****
*****following mentions some details of the book.******

The bad guy is a horder. Part of his collections includes straight razors. The killer's favorite cut throat razor is used in his murders, his prized Krusius Brothers. Hence the choice of this blade.

Also one of the things he collects, is the digital idenity of people. He's a dataminer and hacker. Manipulating information to frame others for his evil deeds.

Although not a hoarder, after reading the story I did reflect that I have a lot of razors and a few outdated computers. To combine the living and digital elements of the story, I disassembled a 15 year old PC.

I felt the section of the mother board that had the memory would be appropriate for scales. To mimic blood drops glistening, the mounting holes of the board were filled with red glitter and the epoxy resin. Since he slices to the bone, bone was the choice for the wedge.

It isn't a straight razor book, nor does it claim to be. Uncomplentary to straight razor use, it's a weapon in the story. This doesn't take away that it was a fun mystery thriller. This stuck with me enough to put together this tribute razor.

http://straightrazors.me/str8pics/cbkb/1.jpg

http://straightrazors.me/str8pics/cbkb/2.jpg

http://straightrazors.me/str8pics/cbkb/3.jpg

http://straightrazors.me/str8pics/cbkb/4.jpg

***yikes! title typo on Circuit Board vs wrong spelling Circut Board...don't think I can edit title. What the heck, he is a cutter.

That is unbelievably cool. For many years I worked in the circuit board fabrication industry. A razor after my own heart.

Those are some super looking scales, I like them a lot. I have the same KB blade it is one of my best shavers. That is a good use of materials.

Charlie

Very well executed, I love how you smoothed it all up... :tu

There was a guy on here that did these way way back, went by "Garythepenman" or something like that... would have to really dig deep to find it now...

Very nice work. The one think I don't like about most boards scale is that they are not symmetrical, but you aced that. And very smooth too.

I particularly like the scale pattern in the last picture. (Do razors have a left and right side?)

Don't use it before bedtime. It sounds like a recipe for a nightmare.

Tim

Awesome job! I,too have seen circut board scales, but not of this quality! Gives us a reason to hold on to the mother boards as well as the hard drives. Kudos!

Very cool concept and very well executed.

Very cool !!! :bow

That's what TRON shaves with. Really nicely done!

now that is what i would call a borg razor, it was assimilated

Very nice.. I will give you fair warning when using older motherboards stay way from the copper colored ones unless you seal the scales with CA as a wet blade can cause the copper to stick to the blade and oxidize. Haven't had the issue with any boards with silver wire etching. Also be careful of older motherboards as they may not be lead free.

Now that has to be one of the coolest things I have ever seen... a razor that calculates.
VERY well done... great idea and I really like the look. However, I thought you couldn't get circuit boards wet. lol.

Very cool!

Jim

Thanks Guys. So many great comments. Thought I'd reply to a few of many...
*******

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spazola

I have the same KB blade it is one of my best shavers.

---

I am looking forward to getting it honed to enjoy the shave. I wound up getting a few other KBs to find the right blade shape for this project. Kinda look forward to what will happen with those others too.
*******

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ogershok

...For many years I worked in the circuit board fabrication industry. A razor after my own heart.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Very well executed, I love how you smoothed it all up.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

The one think I don't like about most boards scale is that they are not symmetrical, but you aced that. And very smooth too.

---

Thanks, trying to give an organic look with the angular material. The printed board has an intricate beauty when you look close at its detail. If you let it, it may be easy to have it take over and become too angular a look though.

But just because horn comes from a bovine, you don't necessarily put a cow theme to horn scales. Just like this material doesn't need to have a space age shape.
*******

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gssixgun

There was a guy on here that did these way way back, went by "Garythepenman" or something like that... would have to really dig deep to find it now...

---

I remember Garythepenman's "Electric Razor".
*******

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Gives us a reason to hold on to the mother boards as well as the hard drives

---

lol, yea, I've thought about those old old Laser Discs and Vinyl Records...hmmm
*******

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shoki

That's what TRON shaves with. Really nicely done!

---

Doooh! Green Red and Tron! I didn't even realize I was making a seasonal razor.
*******

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Troggie

Very nice.. I will give you fair warning when using older motherboards stay way from the copper colored ones unless you seal the scales with CA as a wet blade can cause the copper to stick to the blade and oxidize. Haven't had the issue with any boards with silver wire etching. Also be careful of older motherboards as they may not be lead free.

---

Valid point. I think "you" refers in general use? These have been coated well. This not only makes it more comfortable to use, but I suspect retains long time usability. Lead free may also be valid, but many of my old razors aren't lead free either.
*******

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zomax

... However, I thought you couldn't get circuit boards wet. lol.

---

haha sure you CAN. Everyday someone drops their phone in the, er, can. The iphone innards may be a little small. Anybody have a dunked ipad out there?

Fantastic work! Nice job of taking an idea and executing it to perfection. :)

I think you opened up Pandoras box with that one!!!!Now every bodys head is spinning on what to use next, Well done !!!!!!!!!!!!

Superb and it has a story behind it to give it cachet ;-)

All I can say is wow. Those scales look fantastic. I might have to try that myself.:)

Excellent craftsmanship!!! I really like the placement of the intracate details of circuit board with the flow of the scales . It looks like it would light up and blink. Very cool!

I agree with the other, the precision of match each side is what really makes it great.
Very well done! She is a looker.

Those look awesome!! I've seen others use those boards for scales but those are by far the nicest i've seen. The story behind them just adds that extra cool factor too :nj

Although I consider myself to be quite a traditionalist, I do like what you've done here! Now I must read the book that inspired your work!

You beat me to it, very nice indeed!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shoki

That's what TRON shaves with. Really nicely done!

---

I know its been said but awesome job. Super neat razor

Way Cool!!!!!!

That is really cool. Well done:)

Very nice...
A next step may be to etch a custom logo and pattern on PCB.

The epoxy resin is a marvelous touch!

What did you cut the PCB material with.

Good job...

Excellent! :rock:
Using resin means that variety is limited only by imagination.
If I could do that I'd get cheap Celtic knot cuff links and after cutting the swivel part off, mount it on a tartan background and then encase it in the resin.Maybe I'll do it some day.I'm sure we all look farward to seeing any more ideas you might have.

I have come back to look at this 4 times! Just a Remarkable job! Am I alone?????? GREAT!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

What did you cut the PCB material with.

---

The Cutting part was easy.

Cutting, and rough shape was done with a dremmel cutting wheel. When I stripped the board to my desired area, I still left a lot of other components on it. This didn't leave a true flat surface to run on the band or scroll saw. unless I was to do it show side down, but I didn't want to ding up the solder tips.

There are already holes in the boards. After roughly sized, that allowed them to be bolted together, and shaped on the sander. Then sanded edges up to 2000.

The "hardest" parts were removing all the pieces, leaving a flat board. Then the sanding down solder tips without touching the green. Knowing that if it was touched, there is no touch up to that thin layer, required attention. Front side of scales are perfect from marring, with a uniform height to the solder tips. The back sides had the solder areas sanded flat to the green. I'll admit the back side does have some minor scratches.

Also contouring the edges after some epoxy was laid required attention, making sure only epoxy was removed and not touching the board.

Ok this is incredible!
I do have a question. I know the board is flat, I i read your comments about you having to sand down some of the solder points almost down to the green and I know you mentioned you used resin to coat them. But how did you get the resin to shape out so perfectly rounded like that?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rasoio

But how did you get the resin to shape out so perfectly rounded like that?

---

Lol-sand, sand, swear, recoat, sand recoat and repeat. Did I forget swear?

Sorry wasn't meant to be flippant. That was the twitter reply.

Coated the rear, flipped over layer a few more coats on show side. Sanded off rough edges and shape. Another layer up top(maybe more?) Shape again final coat, final sanding. Someplace in there, coated the rear again a few times sanding down again.

That's way abbreviated...each coat, waited 3-4 days, and sanded up to 2000 then back to 800 between each coat. Shaping generally done on the belt sander. Final sanding with MicroMesh to 12000. another Micromesh treatment after pinned (thanks for the recommendation in your posts Glen!)

I love to contour the edge of scales, leaving a round radius from top to bottom, and as thin as reasonable. The images I posted show a lot of glare, not only due to my crummy photography skills, but to demo the radius. It really is clear as glass.

A harder thing for me to complete until satisfaction was leaving a sharp 90 degree on the inner scales such as where wedge meets the scales.

Really cool and innovative.

Very cool. I am impressed. :)
Novel idea and beautiful execution.