Thread: first try at razor from scratch, wrinkles

Here is my first attempt at a razor from scratch. It was going well until the very end when it developed wrinkles on the edge. I am guessing that there must be some internal stresses at work. The blade is ground down to .010 for approximately 3/16 from the edge. Maybe I ground it too thin? Maybe I did something funky with the heat treatment?

I learned a lot during the process and am ready to try again, this time I will buy some steel instead of using an old file.

Charlie

Great job! I think it looks good. Did you make a new forge?

ooooooo like it

For your first attempt that looks great!!!!!!! keep it up man!!!!

That's a beauty, wrinkles or not. Great work on the jimps. Keep at it, man. Very cool.

Chris L

Originally Posted by tjiscooler

Great job! I think it looks good. Did you make a new forge?

I used the same forge, it worked better this time. I am not sure if it was heating less mass, the lining was finally dry, or using a brick to block the opening instead of an old sad iron. I think using the brick made the biggest improvement.

Charlie

Originally Posted by spazola

I used the same forge, it worked better this time. I am not sure if it was heating less mass, the lining was finally dry, or using a brick to block the opening instead of an old sad iron. I think using the brick made the biggest improvement.

Charlie

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

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!

Old files aren't good for files anymore. They can't cost as much as new ones or new steel.

Two things come out of this photo. There were internal stresses in the steel from the heat treatment and that's whats causing the blade to "potato chip." That's easy enough to fix with a few changes in how you are preparing the blade for heat treatment.

Second: It's a very good start.