Thread: My first custom made razor, Japanese style! :)

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Nice job. The size is fine . In fact it is 5mm shorter than the big Iwasaki 'head shaver'
I see what you mean with the back bevel but don't be too hard on yourself. That's a great effort. Congrats.
btw is that a Suita it is sitting on ?

Yes, I got it from JimR a few weeks ago. I didn't play with it too much because time is short, but Jim said it is a nice finisher, so I will learn to use it when I will have the time for it. First I have to make sure I use my new shapton pros to their maximum, so I will know the difference between the Jnat and the 12k

Originally Posted by ezpz

what kind of steel? what tools did you use other then the bench grinder?

It is from a stainless steel a friend of mine uses for his cleavers. KO-13, about 0,5% carbon content, 56HRC with gas protecting HT (I don't know if this is the right english translation for it ).
I will have to test it extensively, but looks like good stuff after the first few tries. It is not CPM30V, but the old sheffields weren't also, so I hope it will shave nicely and will hold an edge for a few shaves. I am planning to get some other steels to use, but I wanted to keep it simple in the first time, this was the steel I could get easily nearby.

I used a hacksaw to cut the rough profile from a bigger piece, then bench grinder all the way to rough grinding. I used a 4" wheel with 180 greaseless to soften the lines, and then I sent it for the HT. After it I finished the grind on the bench grinder, and used 180-320 greaseless and a bit of polishing compound to get it looking nicely. Not too much equipment, but I will get more as I go along the way

Rough sharpening was done on a fresh sheet of 400 sandpaper, and then Chosera 1k, 4/8k Norton, and then my time was up, because I had to travel to a local straight meetup with it. Now the edge is not in the best shape from a lot of probing and a few bad touches, so I will put her on the 2-5-12k Shapton pro stones today, we will see how it goes.

Very cool and very nice looking blade. Good work

Very well done! I am surprised this is your first attempt, I can't wait to see what you try next

any idea of the temp of the HT and time? Water or oil quench? Also, any plans to make a left handed one? THX.

Originally Posted by Robin1

any idea of the temp of the HT and time? Water or oil quench? Also, any plans to make a left handed one? THX.

The HT temp should have been around 980-1035°C, and there was no oil residue on the blade, so it should have been air quenched. I have no idea on the time of it, a professional made the whole HT for me.

I was thinking about making left handers too, actually a friend of mine asked the same a few days ago. I will give it a go imo, shouldn't be harder to make than a rightie

That's beautiful and to be done without "proper" tools, absolutely amazing. You said in your first post that good and bad comments alike were welcome, if anyone has anything bad to say about it, they are an idiot imo. Great work. I cant wait to see how you progress as a custom razor maker. Keep em coming.