Thread: Making my own razor

here is the pivot hole

here is some progress on one of my straights. Tapered the tang. Comphy in the hand. Almost ready for heat treatment

Ok maybe now I got all of this out of my system and I am ready for heat treatment. New Japanese style razor, razor also. I could not resist

Think about bending the tang up a tad on the Kami - I find they are easier to use that way, and most of the traditional one are not straight. Just a suggestion - and very hard to do after heat treating.

Hmm mm I will have to look at some online to understand what you are saying

Here is an example
http://straightrazorpalace.com/images/attach/jpg.gif

better?

Or does the slope need to be more gradual?

Originally Posted by shooter74743

No, the 1/4" stock. I scribe center around the entire perimeter of a profiled blank before I start removing material for the blade or tang. I don't have a scribe designed for this (yet), so I use a drill bit. I will scratch center on a flat surface all the way around from one side, then flip the blank and scribe center again from that side. Works great as long as you keep the bit stationary & don't let it rotate.

To OP,

Quality woodworking suppliers sell marking scribes (single point). These (mine anyway) have a very hard sharp tool steel scribing point. Should work on annealed tool steel with no problem. (BTW - tenoning scribes have two points - unnecessary for your use.) A basic decent single point one should not be too expensive.

If you really get into this, (I speak from knife blade building, not razor making) you might consider a purpose-made belt sander for knife making. Has different size rollers so you can adjust your hollow grind radius to suit. I think the one I used to have was from Grizzly Industrial.

I assume you are starting with an O-1 bar and just doing material removal to shape. Way back, a buddy and I making larger knives were forging the stock to rough size (yes, we built a coal-fired forge), then grinding to final profile. With a power tool as suggested, you can probably rough out a razor blade in a few hours.

My 2¢ - FWIW ;- )

Before you send them off for heat treatment, put your makers mark on them. You will need to do something to your Japanese style razor to help you flip it when stropping. Try it out and see how it strops & works in the hand. A bit more angle as mentioned with the bend close to the blade maybe? THe long cylindrical tang/tail like that just looks like it would be hard to use if your hand were to be slippery or wet.