Thread: Custom Hand File Razor

This is the first attempt in fabricating a straight razor for myself, & from my good friend Tom a.k.a. Sharptonn. We have been calling it Billy Baroo (a homage to Ted Knight in Caddyshack). It was made out of an old bench file.I ground the blade on a Harig 612 & Bridgeport surface grinder. To get the hollow grind I set the blade up on magnetic chuck and with the cross slide dragged the wheel the distance of hollow. I then flipped the blade over on the spine and repeated on the other side. All the while flooding with coolant. My greatest mistake was thinking I could put a stabilizer on it. Big Mistake. Scales were made from ebony which I cracked by the way, and a lead wedge.
Sharptonn did the hard part, he made the lump shave. By honeing his heart out turned my useless hunk into quite a fabulous shaver. He smiled the blade, fixed my stabilizer debacle, repaired the cracked scale, polished, pinned & turned it into a beauty.
Tom is a true Mentor in every sense of the word. And a great friend. Many thanks goes out to him!
Hope You like,
Darl (a.k.a. Tarkus)