japanese style razor

like I said in introduction section, I made some razors in japanese style. it was my first go at them after few years of knife making. since they were first I didn’t want to go to complex...just original design with few changes. hope you like it.

here is short WIP (hope to make more pic of the process soon) and some finished razors.

first I forged 28mm bar of steel (1 %C, 0,1 %V) to 5x20x60mm piecehttps://lh6.googleusercontent.com/O8...BZD1hX37NKCzes

left is steel, right is iron and both have one side grind clean:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/6S...ljesnAR7UqKuVM

welding corners and into fire:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/k8...Y6O5KkLYjD2xrk

forge welded and forged into shape. hopefully i'll soon modified the tools on power hammer to reduce hand forging only to straightening:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/CV...yazlMPPYziIAcE

it was never ending fun with straightening after quenching and tempering but that was expected. on the other hand I didn’t think there will be wrapping while grinding bevels but I had fun time then also.

finished razors:

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...itvicaWIP6.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...itvicaWIP7.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...itvicaWIP8.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...itvicaWIP9.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...tvicaWIP10.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...012/britve.jpg

62-63 HRC, 19 degrees angle, 40-50 mm long, 4-5 mm thick.

I didn’t had much success with sharpening but I was lucky to meet King2011 couple of days after I finished them so they ended up pretty sharp.

comments and advices are most welcome.

thanks for reading.

great looking work, i'm liking those razors big time.

Jamie.

Those are good looking razors. Thank you for the in progress shots of how you made them.

I made a similar razor this week, I used the same method and same size pieces of metal as you.

Charlie

Nice work! I am always amazed at the old skills and techniques this razor hobby is bringing back! Cool!
Tom

I have a chance to hone above beauties to Karlo and I can freely say that Karlo did great job especially with steel choosing.
All razors took great edges - very sharp but very smooth same time.
Next time I will make some shaving videos - waiting for new batch.

look's nice , But personally , I find that the steel is too thick compared to the iron.

Great looking blades. Thanks for the pictorial walkthrough.

Stu

thanks, I’m glad you like it.

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Originally Posted by bryan

look's nice , But personally , I find that the steel is too thick compared to the iron.

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yes, the steel is half the thickness of the razor and it is on entire left side, even on the handle. but like I said I made a few changes compared to the original design. though I’m not sure will this be bad or neutral thing for using razor.

It's great to see this sort of work being done. Good stuff!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Karlo

thanks, I’m glad you like it.



yes, the steel is half the thickness of the razor and it is on entire left side, even on the handle. but like I said I made a few changes compared to the original design. though I’m not sure will this be bad or neutral thing for using razor.

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it's not bad , but your way is less easy for quenching

Nicely done. If I may just offer a small suggestion: If you see that the bevels get as wide as this, grind the razor some more so that the bevels get thinner. Fat bevels make for a lot more effort in honing (since much more metal needs to be removed). Thinner bevels are also more elegant and a mark of skill.

king2011 told me exactly the same thing and yes thinner bevels look more elegant. part of it is due to my sharpening. I was going from 300 to 3000 stone at least 5 times until King got them. originally, they were at least half of the present width.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Karlo

king2011 told me exactly the same thing and yes thinner bevels look more elegant. part of it is due to my sharpening. I was going from 300 to 3000 stone at least 5 times until King got them. originally, they were at least half of the present width.

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I am pretty sure that new batch of razors will have much more narrow bevels so they will look more elegant - but as someone told wide bevels are just cosmetic issue and nothing more. Those razors are excellent shavers no matter of such a wide bevels.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Karlo

king2011 told me exactly the same thing and yes thinner bevels look more elegant. part of it is due to my sharpening. I was going from 300 to 3000 stone at least 5 times until King got them. originally, they were at least half of the present width.

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I am pretty sure that new batch of razors will have much more narrow bevels so they will look more elegant - but as someone told wide bevels are just cosmetic issue and nothing more. Those razors are excellent shavers no matter of such a wide bevels.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KING2011

I am pretty sure that new batch of razors will have much more narrow bevels so they will look more elegant - but as someone told wide bevels are just cosmetic issue and nothing more. Those razors are excellent shavers no matter of such a wide bevels.

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Not entirely true.
Wide bevels also make honing a lot harder, because much more metal needs to be removed.
Got shaving it doesn't matter. For honing it certainly does.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bruno

Not entirely true.
Wide bevels also make honing a lot harder, because much more metal needs to be removed.
Got shaving it doesn't matter. For honing it certainly does.

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Yes, you got right - I was not 100% precise - for shaving does not matter but honing can be little bit tricky with wide bevels.

mix of pictures from process and three finished razor

this is how setup for stamping the razor looks like. from left to right; tongs holding the stamp, tongs for holding the razor, razor, hot piece of iron so that I have enuf time for stamping and my precious.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...britvaWIP1.jpg

after quenching and some profiling I’m starting to grind backside. bit by bit trying to hold the lines parallel.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...britvaWIP2.jpg

now, this is starting to look like something.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...britvaWIP3.jpg

a bit different from the previous three, but still the same.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...britvaWIP4.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...britvaWIP5.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...britvaWIP6.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...britvaWIP7.jpg

right now I’m sketching some with handles.

thanks for watching and I hope you like it.

Very cool. Thanks for the play by play...always cool to see the process and the skill that goes into making :tu

This new batch is excellent done - little bit changes in addition to previous made razors makes this batch almost perfect.
As I can see from the photos bevels on this ones are much more narrower than in the first ones and final shape is much more harmonious.
I am sure that honing of this ones will be real pleasure.

Shaving with fresly honed razor from last batch. The video quality is not the best one but you can get an idea that this razors are worth to try.
Also I have to mix all passes after the face rinsing (WTG, XTG and ATG) because I can not upload video much longer than 10 minutes.
I just use one side of the razor as japanese razors traditionally are used and in the end I just can say that razor is very sharp but also same time very smooth shaver.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Lwqu...ature=youtu.be

Some skills you have there

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Originally Posted by j1mmyman

Some skills you have there

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Thank you.