Thread: Making my own razor

Attachment 154079Well, I had been interested in making my own straight razor and have been shaving with a straight razor for about a month. I know that's not a long time. But because I have made other things with success that have interested me, I thought I was good to go. I will attach 2 pics so far. All comments and tips and personal messages are welcome . I appreciate it. So what do you guys think . Hollow more before heat treat ? I dont have a caliper to check thickness yet ...How thin before heat treat ? any suggestions on the spine . Something cool to make it custom looking. I am thinking mid evil looking. I know i need to drill the hole for the scales . suggestions on how far back to put the hole ? I am new so I appreciate all input . Right now the razor is a 9/8 . I know , i know, wide !!!!! I could always sand the spine down to make it an 8/8 . it is about 6.5 Inches long in total . blade length is just over 3 inches. To me this is like Art . I love to draw, I have made my own drum shells out of wood staves , so this is another avenue for me . Lots of fun i must say . David

Leave the edge about 1/16th inch thick before heat treating. I'd try to even out the spine a bit more on the back side. As I recall, the ratio of height to spine thickness is 4 to 1, so 8/8 would be 1/4 inch thick. 9/8 a tad thicker. Good luck, and keep us informed.

Thanks Skipnord. I do recall that as well. The blade is 1/4 inches wide so I will definetly shorten the width of the blade. maybe to just over 1 inch. Then look further into where the pivit hole should be and put any final touches on the spine before heat treat. I have more steel to work with also if this one goes bust . It is 01 steel by the way. I am also wondering if I keep the edge at 1/16th of an inch thick , if I should carry that thickness up the blade say 1/4 inch or so . Or use a gradual hollow slope ? These are intricacies I am not sure of yet

I used the natural shape of the grinding wheel, that way you are keeping the hollow uniform. This way, when you are doing a final grind on the hollow you will be able to just add more pressure at the cutting edge and the hollow will be uniform. When you start final grinding and polishing, all of your mistakes start to glare. Try to get everything perfect before HT, this is where the handwork comes in.

It also looks like you took the hollow grinding down the tang of the razor. This will not work with scales, the tang needs to have parallel sides. They can taper towards the tail, but the sides must be straight.

Don't forget that pivot hole...

I tapered on the tang. Not to much though. I did not think it would impact functionality of the scales?

Just remember, sometimes you have to do hand work...you cant do it all by power tools...at least I can't as they work too fast for me sometimes.

You don't have to have tapered tang necessarily, but you must have straight sides, parallel with one another and the spine otherwise it will not close on center...that is the key. mock up some scales or ice cream sticks and make sure your tang is straight and will center.

Cool. Good advice

Originally Posted by drmccubx

Thanks Skipnord. I do recall that as well. The blade is 1/4 inches wide so I will definetly shorten the width of the blade. maybe to just over 1 inch. Then look further into where the pivit hole should be and put any final touches on the spine before heat treat. I have more steel to work with also if this one goes bust . It is 01 steel by the way. I am also wondering if I keep the edge at 1/16th of an inch thick , if I should carry that thickness up the blade say 1/4 inch or so . Or use a gradual hollow slope ? These are intricacies I am not sure of yet

It's not a hard science. The ratios observed 'in the wild' vary quite a bit. If your razor is 1/8 wider than normal for that thickness, it really doesn't matter that much.
You don't have to carry that 1/16 up the blade for heat treatment. You want the have a balance between maintaining the integrity during quench, and having as little material as possible which needs to be removed after HT.

I appreciate you putting my fears at ease. It's nice to see that there are lots of options. I'm looking at possibly grinding down to make it a little bit of the above 1 inch. And then shaping the tail a little bit differently. I was looking at further in noticing it really is quite large for straight razor. but i also have more metal to play with . could be quite the process ongoing to come out with something i am proud of . may end up settling for something that simply "works" .

Keep up the good work!!

Ray