Thread: How a knifemaker makes a razor or a 7/8 French point WIP and how to

Thanks for all of the interest and kind words everyone. To get such a positive response from such a discerning audience is truly flattering.

Now, what y'all are here for, the finish.

First, I like making one-piece wooden scales. Something about the feel of the wood and the simplicity of it makes me happy. But, for this project, I decided to go with, what I consider to be, a more formal set.

I started with laying out the scale shape on a piece of brown paper.


I ripped my material and squared it on the disc sander.


Traced it, cut it out, put tiny dots of 5 minute epoxy on the middle to glue it together and then squared that up and drilled it.


From there, I made a wedge and glued it in. For the record, the wedge in this one is pink ivory. I didn't end up using this construction because, when I finished it, it looked like an exact copy of Tim's carbon series scales. Needless to say, that won't fly They also didn't look right on this razor.


Once it was dry, I cleaned everything up a bit on the disc sander. Then, I flattened and rounded a piece of scrounged copper, drilled a wedge-pin hole, and epoxied/drove the copper in.


I shaped everything on the 8 inch wheel and slack belt on the KMG. I started with 80 grit, then moved to 120, then 220. After that, I hand sanded with 320. Then I oiled it and sanded with 400, building a slurry and really getting it smooth. Then, I cleaned it off and re-oiled it, let it sit for 15 minutes and buffed it off on a clean wheel.


After that, I did the final fitting of the scales. For the razor itself, It got taken down to 600 on the face and 0000 steel wool on the rest. Then, I used some dark red rouge on the buffer to give it a nice satin finish all over. So, here it is, all together:


The spine:


The bevel:


I set the bevel on it, but have yet to take it through my whole progression and shave with it so that's the reason my mark is not yet on it

I was also working on this, so that's why I didn't have enough time to hone.


What would this thread be without at least one knife?!

Thanks all for looking,

Tony