Thread: Re-using Sheffield Steel?

Very interested to see how this all pans out. I have more than a few razors I would be willing to sacrifice to the forge, in the interest of taking something not useable and turning them in to something useful.

Super cool project, excited to see how it develops.

Looks like it turned into a solid billet, so there's hope it might actually work.

It's very nearly an RSO...

At the moment it's freakin' HUGE, but I wanted to leave some extra in every dimension to allow for whoopses and unforseen bit that need to be ground off. But if all works, it should end up being 8/8 or thereabouts with a pretty heavy grind. We'll see...

sweet!!!!!!!!!

Great project and looking good!

Nice!Really interesting!

I take it from the pics that you removed the edge section of the blades before flattening?
I didn't think it would work because the edges would be too thin, but you avoided that problem by removing part of the blade and making the rest flat-ish.

This looks like a very interesting project and you are certainly doing something special!

Originally Posted by Bruno

Nice!Really interesting!

I take it from the pics that you removed the edge section of the blades before flattening?
I didn't think it would work because the edges would be too thin, but you avoided that problem by removing part of the blade and making the rest flat-ish.

This looks like a very interesting project and you are certainly doing something special!

You're 100% correct. But then,

I flattened the tang and spine, and in the process the blades turned to foil. I think by the time I was done, they were more scale than steel. So I ground the blades back until the steel was the same thickness as the spine/tang. And because the blades shared a more or less similar profile to begin with, they all curved in a similar way, and so lined up nicely for the forge welding.

One other thing I did was dunk the billet in kerosene before forge welding. (theory being the kerosene burns away, leaving a layer of carbon that shields the steel from oxidation) So I don't know whether the razor steel itself is well suited to forge welding, or if the kerosene made a difference. But either way, I was very surprised how well the billet formed.

Now I just have to avoid screwing it up like I did my first razor-making attempt.

It is coming along very nicely. I don't know of anyone with a new custom razor made from actual Sheffield steel.

Taking things *very* slowly with this as I don't want to rush anything and make a mistake, but it's coming along. I'm trying to avoid the grinder, so there is a ton of hand sanding going into this.