Thread: Scott's trying to make a razor???

Ok, so I begged and pleaded with Dave (Del1r1um) to let me in on the blanks he was going to do with a waterjet. I expected that he would have put up a bigger fight, but he's a nice guy and simply said "OK". I'm still not sure if I bit off more than I could chew, but below is a chronology of my making my own straight razor. I plan to do it all but the tempering/heat-treating...I'm still too much a rooky to try and mess with a forge...SO, WOULD SOMEONE VOLUNTEER YOUR SERVICES VIA PM, willing to pay for your services.

First I changed the profile a little...


Started out grinding it as a true wedge...


MMMM..... Thought about those Japanese straights for a bit...


It's tough getting the grinding even, the 4x36 belt also removes skin...


Notice the scribe marks for center, used a sharpened center punch...


Southern ingenuity at it's best!!!


About as far as I want to take it before temper/heat-treat...


Rough hollow...


After a little more profiling...


Different angle, ready for some heat...


OK, so now you have it, where have I messed up? The edge is currently .03-.035" at it's thinnest point (shaving edge). Spine width is .25". I didn't get too carried away with cleaning up the grind marks and all since it will need a bit of cleanup after it's been in the forge.

Any and all comments are welcomed and more than likely needed...

Thanks again Dave, I probably wouldn't have ever attempted this without your generosity.

Didn't put a pic of the 1/4 hollow...

That didn't turn out too bad. I think where you stopped grinding is just about right. What steel is it?

1095 if I remember correctly, have to double check...

Looks great man. I'm waiting for a few things to arrive before I start working on mine.

Double checked, it's 1095.

Looking good, do you plan to heat treat yourself?
Never thought of using a bench sander to do hollowing, giving me ideas.
Might practice on some scraps to develop technique.
Which direction is belt moving, away or toward edge?

Sent it off to Butch yesterday to have treated, give me a little while though... Belt moves away from me if you are looking at the pic above. I'm still scratching my head on the smiling blank on how to go about hollowing it out. "Necesity is the mother of all invention", I just use what I have...which isn't much compared to some of these guys shops.

there are 2 ways to follow the smile
one is rotating the blade and the other is to tip the heel and toe "into " the grinder (rocking the grind)

i ll haveot get pics or vid to help as its alot easer then it sounds
i use both ways to keep things even and also i have found that jsut following the spine around the grind itsself i over thin the belly

I can mentally picture what you are talking about, but for the smiling blank I would think that the 4" wide belt is just too wide for rocking left to right. Is my thinking right?

I used a rocking motion for this razor, rocking from spine to edge on the cinderblock pictured in the OP.