Thread: A Different Idea of Blade Construction

I know about & have made axes & knives from the style used before high carbon steel was common. On an axe everything was made from wrought iron & just the edge was shear or blister steel forge welded to the wrought iron. Same with knives an about any other cutting tool. I wonder if any very early razors were made in this way. Many knives were made this way also. I may try this process when I get a shop up & running & see if I can get a razor blank made & then ground.

Dave H.

Sounds interesting. Seems like a practical way to conserve precious steel resources back in the day, and could work for a razor. If you try making one please do let us know how it turns out!

IIRC Livi and Ellis did a "Edge of Hard Steel" attached to either pattern welded or soft steel upper, some of the Kamisori are built on a principle similar to that

Older "True" Framebacks use a similar principle but went about it in a different manner with a hard steel blade separate from the frame of the razor pressed in or held in with a locking screw ..

Might try some searches using the "Advanced Search" function and see if that gives you even more ideas

As Glen said, some Kamisori are made that way. I have one in progress that is white paper steel for the edge, welded to a mild steel body.

This is nothing new. The san mai and suminagashi steel that charlie lewis and i sometimes use is like this. High carbon core with soft sides. It looks nice but has zero practical added value. It has a higher chance of cracking during heat treatment and needs to be honed with tape because otherwise the spine will get some ugly hone wear.

Kami sori razors made like this also ten to warp during quench because one side of the blade contacts differently from the other.

These days steel has become so cheap that the process of making the multi layer billet is much more costly than using monosteel

The value these days is solely aesthetic

Yes the only reason for making one this way for me this way is to see if I can do it & see how well it works & to have FUN. I do like working with wrought iron & the old shear & blister steels.

Dave H.

I like the look of wrought iron on a kitchen knife. For razors I rather weld a core of carbon steel between 2 layers of something like 15N20. You still get the san mai look while retaining the benefits of an all steel razor, such as the ability to hone without tape.

I am just wanting to do a traditonal English style razor from before the days of cheap hard enable steel steel. Many times on other pieces the wrought iron was split deep enough to place the piece of shear steel between the sides then forge welded with just the steel part for the edge. Many knives & axes were made this way.

Slawman