A Weekend at Bob Allman's
Finally I have a little time to post photos of the awesome weekend I spent with Bob Allman making two razors. Warning - this thread will be photo-heavy! I apologize in advance for the poor quality of some of the photographs. Making razors is not the cleanest adventure, and I was slightly paranoid about not ruining my camera with steel dust and water.
Bob and razormeisters, you'll have to forgive my sometimes inaccurate descriptions of the process. For a novice like me, it was somewhat of a drink from a fire hose. Bob's a patient man - I know I asked him some questions 5-10 times before it partially sunk into my dense skull:)
A few of you gentlemen will be pleased to catch a glimpse of the razor you commissioned Bob to make for you during the initial stages of its birth.
Bob, you're an awesome teacher, and I can't wait to visit again for round two!
Enjoy gentlemen!
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...kendatBobs.jpg
Friday night: Razor contour was drawn on graph paper, glued to a 1" x 6" x 1/4" 1095 steel blank with spray adhesive. A band saw was used to cut out the larger sections of the blank.
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...endatBobs1.jpg
Saturday: 60 grit dry on belt grinder to further define razor contour
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...endatBobs3.jpg
Saturday: Bob contouring the monkey tail
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...endatBobs2.jpg
Saturday: Several razors rough contouring completed
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...endatBobs5.jpg
Saturday: Drilling pin hole for scales. It must be done slowly with oil otherwise the bit will heat up and fuse to the steel and the blade's toast.
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...endatBobs6.jpg
Saturday: Various stages of contouring
(to be continued)
4th set of images - "Into the Fire"
You'll notice this set of images aren't the best quality and are of different razors. Bob says the blades have to go from forge to oil in 1 second or the razor's history. It took photographing the process with multiple razors just to get these pics. Dark room, glowing steel, leaping flames, novice photographer... Hey, you get what you pay for:)
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...ndatBobs17.jpg
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...ndatBobs18.jpg
Saturday night: In the forge at some ungodly temperature (Bob?). Heat until non-ferromagnetic. The tang is excluded from this process so it is not hardened like the blade.
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...ndatBobs19.jpg
Saturday night: Nanoseconds before the quench in 150 degree oil. It's a miracle I got this picture - Bob was moving really fast!
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...ndatBobs20.jpg
Saturday night: The quench
5th set - Tempering and call it a night
My understanding of forging and tempering steel (anyone who knows what they're talking about, feel free to chime in at this point:)):
During forging, carbon atoms move into the lattice of the steel. The quench traps the carbon atoms in the lattice if done quickly enough; however, the steel is not too happy about the change in rooming assignments gets kind of stressed out. For some reason, tempering in 100 degree oil works like one hour in a good massage parlor in Chinatown and everyone is happy.
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...ndatBobs21.jpg
Saturday night: Tempering in peanut oil for 1 hour @ 100 degrees
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...ndatBobs25.jpg
Saturday night: Out of the peanut oil
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...ndatBobs26.jpg
Saturday night: Covered in dry ice and in the freezer for the night. It's a good thing massage parlors don't follow this ritual:)
6th set: Grinding the hardened steel
Before I awoke Sunday morning, Bob took the razors off of the dry ice and gave them another 1 hour soak in 100 degree peanut oil.
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...ndatBobs27.jpg
Sunday morning: All of the blades wiped down after their morning soak
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...ndatBobs28.jpg
Sunday morning: Wet grinding with 150 grit on 8" wheel. Dripping water falls onto the mid-portion of the belt to keep the blade from overheating. If you're adverse to getting the right half of your body soaked with cold water down to your skivvies, you probably should skip the razor making adventure;).
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...ndatBobs29.jpg
Sunday morning: You can see steel filings mixed with water on the edge blade. I didn't get a close-up picture, the smaller plate that my thumbs are resting on is a metal plate in which Bob has routed a notch out of the edge. This gives a secure groove in which the spine of the razor rests during grinding. There is little clearance between the belt and the spine of the razor. One has to be incredibly careful placing the razor in and out of the "trench" or really bad things can happen (fortunately no disasters for me).
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...ndatBobs30.jpg
Sunday morning: This image is of my two razors after I've done the first grind. The first grinding is done starting at the spine side of the blade. We progressed from the 8" wheel (150 grit) to 6" wheel (150 grit) to 4" wheel (180 grit) to 2" wheel (180 grit). This progression works first the grind on the spine side of the blade then toward the razor's edge.
Set 8: The Superbowl and the finished product
So what kind of razor work can you accomplish while watching the pre-game show? Hand sanding, then a little more hand sanding. OMG, this has to be the worst part of razor making!
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...ndatBobs36.jpg
Superbowl pregame: The razor is put on a strong magnet and hand sanded with 220 grit sand paper. Trying to get rid of fine scratches and staying off the razor's edge.
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...ndatBobs37.jpg
Superbowl pregame: A bevel is set using 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper on a flat granite stone.
The next step: Watch the Superbowl and eat dinner! Do you think we'd skip the game to make razors???? Even Bob and I aren't THAT crazy:)
After the game we polished the blades at 1800 rpm first using sisal with 220 rouge, then moving to a loose muslin buff using progressively finer rouges (600 then 1200 - 1400 then pink no scratch rouge).
Next was scale-making. I didn't include pictures of this as I figure there are plenty of threads chronicling this process.
The finished product:
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...ndatBobs39.jpg
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...ndatBobs40.jpg
The "glamor shots" once I got back home:
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...ndatBobs43.jpg
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/...ndatBobs44.jpg
Bob,
Again, I want to thank you for your patience, generosity, and for you and your family's outstanding hospitality!
Greg