Thread: Damascus edge thickness?

i dont know about where i should grind the edge thickness on a razor made of Damascus
the first one i am working on is .010 edge pre hone but the other one is a bit heavier then that. so jsut how thin should i be working them down? ooo ones a 15/16 and the other is 6/8

Originally Posted by L R Harner

i dont know about where i should grind the edge thickness on a razor made of Damascus
the first one i am working on is .010 edge pre hone but the other one is a bit heavier then that. so jsut how thin should i be working them down? ooo ones a 15/16 and the other is 6/8

I've done it a couple ways, but the way I've found that seems to work pretty well is to take it down to final thickness, ready to hone, then put a thin layer of fingernail polish at the edge, so the etch doesn't eat it away. Then hone. I've done it a couple ways, as I said, but this seems to work for me.

ok that makes sense. but how thin should i grind them
if it was a wedge that would be easy but im hollow grinding and dont want the blade to be too stiff in use but dont think ultra thin is the way ether?

thanks

Originally Posted by L R Harner

ok that makes sense. but how thin should i grind them
if it was a wedge that would be easy but im hollow grinding and dont want the blade to be too stiff in use but dont think ultra thin is the way ether?

thanks

That would be an experiment and find out thing, IMO. I don't do full hollows, so I don't know. I know mine are a lot thinner than 10 thousandths at the edge before I hone them. My hunting knives are 20, and the razors are less than half that. I'd say somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 thousandths before honing. Wish I could help more. My sorta guiding principle is that it should be pretty close to sharp before it ever comes near a hone.

I'm with Joe on the "thinner is better" thing. I've hand-set a bevel on a razor with a .010" thick edge, and man I don't want to do that again...

I mainly use an 8" wheel, so I do quarter to half hollows. But I try to take the blade to .020" to .025" prior to heat treatment, then probably to .05" or thinner near the edge. I set the bevel with my grinder, too. The main thing I don't like about an edge as thick as .010" is you end up with a very wide bevel, and it's just a pain to hone.

Have you considered just grabbing a few nice vintage razors and mic'ing the blades?

Josh

i have a few and have mic ed them all fall in about .007-9 range at the bump behind the edge (edge is thinner)

i just don't have any Damascus razors to mic
i know that etching can go sorta deep and if too thini could etch through

maybe some one with a Zowada could hop in as looking at his blades they dont seem to look that thin at the edge (might me lighting and cam angle tho)

Tim leaves an area near the edge that isn't etched, to prevent damaging the edge.

This makes it look like they have wide bevels, but that is just optical illusion. The bevels I've seen in pics are very narrow, but they look wide because of the non-etching near the bevel.

EDIT: I should add that I don't have one. This is what I inferred from the pics on his website and the explanation about his double bevels.

Bruno's exactly right. Tim's blades are ground extremely thin at the edge, although they're half-hollows. That makes the etching thing less of an issue. He flat-grinds his blades, actually, and he takes them right down to .001", then grinds in the hollows.

Josh

ok just saw a pic of a DDR razor that spec ed the edge at .010 but just said hollow ground not how hollow
here is a shot of the 2 damascuse razor tips
the one on the left is the .020 that i know needs much more thinning and a stainless razor on the right
sure is hard to get a shot of them like that

Originally Posted by JoshEarl

Bruno's exactly right. Tim's blades are ground extremely thin at the edge, although they're half-hollows. That makes the etching thing less of an issue. He flat-grinds his blades, actually, and he takes them right down to .001", then grinds in the hollows.

Josh

ok thats starting to make more sense to me