Thread: first try at razor from scratch, wrinkles

That is excellent for a first try!

Originally Posted by JoshEarl

Hmmm. I guess it was internal stresses like the other guys said. I haven't seen anything quite like that happen. How thick was the blade when you measured it?

Josh

The blade was pretty close to .010 for most of its length it was around .012 near the toe.

I measured using my dial calipers today since they have a smaller footprint for measuring. I found a thin area running perpendicular to the edge .005 about 1” from the heel since I have a 1” wide contact wheel I am going to assume that I was rocking the blade and digging in the side of the wheel.. This does not look like cause of the problem though. Maybe I ground too thin, maybe some type of stress, maybe the razor gnomes are out to get me.

I am giving up on this one. It was a good learning experience.

I started on a frame back today after work.

Charlie

There you go! Try, try again.

Originally Posted by JoshEarl

All of the above would have helped significantly. It's amazing how much more heat it takes to work with a bigger piece of metal. I started a big Bowie knife once using 2x1/4" steel, and it was brutal. It took me close to two hours to hammer a point onto the bar. I wasn't letting it get hot enough. I should have just popped it in the forge and walked away for three or four minutes for each heat, but I was pulling it out after less than a minute and whaling on it. Wore myself out pretty good.

Josh

Ah but the nice thing about working bigger pieces is that they don't loose their heat so quick. so you can work them for longer.

I might not have any blade smithing experiance, but I started doing blacksmithing for fun at 13(probably could have earlier as my parents age limit was I needed to be able to pick the anvil up myself, and I got real big real quick)

Originally Posted by JoshEarl

All of the above would have helped significantly. It's amazing how much more heat it takes to work with a bigger piece of metal. I started a big Bowie knife once using 2x1/4" steel, and it was brutal. It took me close to two hours to hammer a point onto the bar. I wasn't letting it get hot enough. I should have just popped it in the forge and walked away for three or four minutes for each heat, but I was pulling it out after less than a minute and whaling on it. Wore myself out pretty good.

Josh

Just as the blacksmith I bought my forge of told me, whenever it starts to seem like you need to put in a lot of force on a 800gram hammer, heat it more. Damn good tip that was, since if your work is hot enough it doesn't actually take much effort to bang it into shape...

Damn good try anyhow, I still need to work out how to make a blade, yours look like a bloody perfect razor!