Thread: 1st go at a razor - work in progress

Last summer I picked up a bar of 1/4 x 3/4" O1 steel, and started to play around with turning it into a razor. After a few hours, I decided to set it aside and work on polishing my forging skills on other projects before coming back to it. In the last couple of days I finally got back to work on it, and am part-way through what I hope might become a functional razor.

The goal is a 1/4-hollow(ish) ground, 8/8, French/Irish point razor in a mid-19th century Sheffield stylee. A bit of a mashup of my two favourite razors: a W&B FBU with a round point and barber's notch (aiming for that size and grind) and a Wheatley Brothers "Round Point" (for the style of the point as it is slightly confusingly what we would now call a French or Irish point).

There remains much to do on this blade, including final shaping of the tang and tail, cleaning up the transition from the tang to the heel, a hell of a lot of grinder mark removal, and crucially heat treatment. The edge is actually about 1/4" longer than I want but I will wait until I do a mockup of scales and get an idea how it handles before deciding whether to shorten it from the toe, or reduce it at the heel end.

I think the biggest challenge I've had with it has been trying to work with a bog standard benchtop 4x36" belt sander rather than a proper grinder, but I think it will work out OK. I can sure appreciate why bladesmiths invest in proper grinders though.

Anyway, here are a few pics. Feedback and suggestions are more than welcome. Wish me luck...

It looks like a start to me. I am somewhat envious, mostly because you have time for your projects. I can see some nice lines in there. May the forge be with you.

Looking good!

Some things you may consider: Thin down the tail after the pin hole. Makers mark. Any file work or jimps. I'm very impressed for sure, keep on progressing!

Originally Posted by ScottGoodman

Looking good!

Some things you may consider: Thin down the tail after the pin hole. Makers mark. Any file work or jimps. I'm very impressed for sure, keep on progressing!

Thanks Scott!

I need to do some forging on the tail still, and am just hoping I can localize the heat so that it doesn't screw up the blade. I kind of put the cart before the horse on this one I'm afraid and should have taken care of that before making the blade pretty(ish).

I could just do stock removal on the tang and tail (both are very thick which doesn't really show in the pics, as well as being too wide) but think I'm better off moving steel than removing it at this stage. I *might* want a bit more length in the tail. So in the interest of not shifting the pivot too far back, I'm thinking of forging the tail out a bit but using stock removal to thin and possibly narrow the tang.

I'm seriously considering jimps, but not sure I trust my ability to file accurately and keep the jimps properly spaced. Or maybe I should embrace this as an excuse to buy a checkering file?

EDIT: just remembered another project is to make new wood grips for my 1911. I think a checkering file might be worth getting after all...

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The tang seems angled upward a fair bit. This may make stropping inconvenient. If it is not too late, you might want to heat the tang again, and tap it a bit to bring it a bit more in line with the spine.

nice start
I like the blade shape, look forward to seeing the progress