Thread: Custom wedge blades for lather catchers

Originally Posted by animalwithin

Yup, will be sending a blade + razor to Bruno for a test run soon. You're basically spot on with the dimensions.

Now that I know what Wootz steel is, having blades made from that would be incredible in these razors. Fingers crossed!

This free blade will be not be wootz but something in layered damascus steel.
It will have a visible pattern in the steel, just not the organic wootz pattern.

Not really because of what wootz costs, but because bringing out the wootz pattern properly is pretty time consuming, and also my first attempt at this might fail.
Otoh I have plenty of bars of damacus lying around, and with my press almost in business, there is no reason to be frugal with the damascus I made earlier.

Additional reasons to not use wootz on my first attempt is that etching is going to be a challenge. These things don't have a tang or a convenient hole as far as I can see now, so I will need to makesome sort of clamp to hold this during the etching process. On one hand it should hold this in such a way that all sides are exposed to the maximum. Otoh it should be really solid because if it should slip out during etching, fishing it out of the acid tank might pose problems

Originally Posted by Bruno

This free blade will be not be wootz but something in layered damascus steel.
It will have a visible pattern in the steel, just not the organic wootz pattern.

Not really because of what wootz costs, but because bringing out the wootz pattern properly is pretty time consuming, and also my first attempt at this might fail.
Otoh I have plenty of bars of damacus lying around, and with my press almost in business, there is no reason to be frugal with the damascus I made earlier.

Additional reasons to not use wootz on my first attempt is that etching is going to be a challenge. These things don't have a tang or a convenient hole as far as I can see now, so I will need to makesome sort of clamp to hold this during the etching process. On one hand it should hold this in such a way that all sides are exposed to the maximum. Otoh it should be really solid because if it should slip out during etching, fishing it out of the acid tank might pose problems

I see, I see. No worries at all, I'll just be happy with a legit blade from any good steel at this point. I can definitely see how etching will be much harder on this smaller sized blade.

The dimensions should also let it fit in the stropping holder also.

I was thinking at least for a first attempt just holding it on the ends in a clamp while etching. Then polish the ends after etching the larger sides and the spine. That would give a nice contrast from the smaller sides to the top and bottom.

Here I go thinking out loud again!

I think there are a lot of us waiting anxiously to see how this turns out. Amazing no one has thought to create contemporary versions of these blades until now.

This is very interesting indeed.